It’s no secret that Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is one of the most narrative-driven stocks in the market.
The company’s valuation hinges less on its revenue and profitability numbers, and more on whether investors believe it will successfully evolve into an artificial intelligence (AI) platform business with product lines spanning autonomous vehicles and humanoid robotics
The bull case centers on Tesla scaling up its production of self-driving vehicles and proving that there is a market for its humanoid Optimus robots. These innovations aim to create entirely new revenue streams far larger than the electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage businesses that dominate its financials today. On the other hand, the bear case emphasizes that those same projects have experienced repeated delays and are incurring mounting capital expenditures with little in the way of near-term returns, while Tesla’s core EV business has yet to demonstrate durable pricing power or margin expansion.
Tesla’s second-quarter earnings report is slated for July 22, and growth investors may be wondering how the stock will react to that data readout, particularly given the polarized views about Elon Musk’s ambitious vision for the company. Tesla crushed Q2 EV delivery estimates, but questions remain Earlier this month, Tesla published its vehicle delivery figures for the second quarter. The company delivered 480,126 vehicles, comfortably ahead of the 406,024 consensus among sell-side analysts.