Morningstar

Tesla's Surprise Profit Blows Away Consensus

Tesla is a volatile name and fair value estimate changes may be frequent as its story changes.

Securities In This Article
Tesla Inc
(TSLA)

Tesla TSLA reported third-quarter results with a surprise profit that blew away consensus. Adjusted diluted EPS of $1.86 easily beat consensus of a $0.42 loss and Tesla had a GAAP profit of $0.78 per share. GAAP free cash flow of $371 million declined from the prior year quarter’s figure of $881 million but the company finished the quarter with a comfortable cash figure of $5.3 billion. Revenue declined year over year by 7.6% to roughly meet consensus of $6.33 billion. Total deliveries rose 16% year over year to 97,186 and by 1.9% sequentially. Model 3 should lead growth for the next several quarters until the Model Y crossover is at decent production volumes. The sedan’s deliveries grew sequentially by 2.7% but rose by about 42% year over year, while Model S and X combined deliveries fell 36.9% year over year. The company is “highly confident” its 2019 total vehicle deliveries will exceed 360,000 and we agree but the top end of prior delivery guidance of 400,000 was not mentioned. The stock rose 20% after hours on Oct. 23 due to the EPS beat and Tesla saying the Model Y will now start production next summer instead of in late 2020.

Although the S & X are higher priced than the Model 3 and Model Y, we agree with CEO Elon Musk that the 3 and the Y are the future of Tesla as these vehicles will bring the volume it needs to get more scale. Given Americans' love of crossovers, it is the largest U.S. vehicle segment at over 40% of new vehicle sales, and other vehicles coming such as a pickup truck in a few years, we are substantially raising our vehicle delivery projections through 2028 which causes our fair value estimate to rise 41% to $326. We remain concerned about Tesla’s debt load so if free cash flow becomes insufficient to service debt, we may raise our weighted average cost of capital. All else constant, that move would lower our fair value estimate to as low as $206. Tesla is a volatile name and fair value estimate changes may be frequent as its story changes.

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About the Author

David Whiston, CFA, CPA, CFE

Strategist
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David Whiston, CFA, CPA, CFE, is a strategist, AM Industrials, for Morningstar*. He covers stocks in the automotive industry, including dealerships, parts manufacturers, and automakers. He has covered the automotive industry since joining Morningstar in 2007. He writes stock reports, ad hoc reports, stock analyst notes, and builds discounted cash flow models for each company covered. He also assesses their economic moat and makes frequent television and print media appearances in local, national, and international news outlets. Key stocks covered include GM, Ford, CarMax, and all six publicly traded franchise auto dealers, such as AutoNation and Penske Automotive Group.

Before joining Morningstar in 2007, Whiston spent four years in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ New York real estate audit practice and one year in its Chicago office working on real estate acquisition due diligence, gaining experience around assessing an asset’s cash flow.

Whiston holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting from the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration with concentrations in finance, economics, and organizational behavior from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation, and he is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Fraud Examiner.

In 2012, he ranked first in the specialty retailers and services industry in The Wall Street Journal’s annual “Best on the Street” analysts survey. He ranked first in the same industry in 2011 .

* Morningstar Research Services LLC (“Morningstar”) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc

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