Tesla Stock Sinks 4% As Q3 Deliveries Fall Flat

Topline

Tesla stock slumped Wednesday after the American electric vehicle titan reported its third-quarter car deliveries, which were in line with consensus forecasts but failed to meet the most bullish of Wall Street analysts’ expectations.

A Tesla charging station in southern California last month.

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Key Facts

Tesla’s Q3 deliveries of 462,890 exceeded average analyst projections of 462,000, according to FactSet, but fell well short of forecasts of 470,000 from Barclays and UBS.

Shares of Tesla fell almost 5% to $246 by 9:45 a.m. EDT, on pace for its worst day in almost a month.

The 6% year-over-year quarterly delivery growth marks Tesla’s first quarter of 2024 with annual growth, improving on 9% and 5% annual declines during the first and second quarters, respectively.

Key Background

Tesla stock tends to be highly volatile for a company of its size, with deliveries data often a major catalyst, and shares rose 10% on the day of July’s report. Shares of the automaker are down about 0.5% year-to-date, far underperforming the S&P 500’s 35% bounce, though it’s been a mixed year for fellow U.S. car companies Ford (down 6% year-to-date, including dividends), General Motors (up 40%) and Rivian (down 56%). Consensus estimates call for 485,000 deliveries during the fourth quarter for Tesla, which would bring its 2024 total to 1.78 million. That’s comfortably below last year’s 1.81 million, which would make this Tesla’s first annual contraction in vehicle deliveries since at least 2015, when FactSet data dates back to for the company. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has characterized the company as riding “between two major growth waves,” pointing to the company’s autonomous driving initiatives as the next driver of growth.

Crucial Quote

“Investors walk[ed] away from the delivery numbers expecting more,” wrote Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a note to clients. The bullish Ives added the in-line deliveries were still a “mini step in the right direction.”