Did Tesla's delivery-inspired selloff create a buying opportunity?
Win McNamee

Earlier this week, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) experienced its largest one-day selloff in four months, even as the overall stock market staged a substantial rebound on rising hopes that the Federal Reserve might be nearing the end of its rate-hiking cycle. Shares of Elon Musk's electric vehicle maker dropped after the company reported Q3 deliveries that were below market expectations.
Given the current market dynamics, did the recent decline in TSLA create a buying opportunity?
Q3 Delivery Numbers
The Austin, Texas-based Tesla (TSLA) produced more vehicles in Q3 than it delivered, with the latter number coming in below what analysts had predicted. According to a company announcement on Monday, TSLA produced 365,923 vehicles and delivered 343,830 vehicles during the three-month period. Meanwhile, Wall Street was anticipating deliveries of 357,938.
While deliveries missed expectations, the Q3 total still represented 35% growth from Q2 and an increase of 42.5% compared to the same period last year.
TSLA share were hit hard by the delivery shortfall. The stock dropped 8.6%, adding to its year-to-date declines. While share bounced back by 2% in Tuesday's intraday action, TSLA has lost more than 20% since hitting a one-month high on Sept. 21. 
Bigger picture, shares of the EV maker have dropped about 38% for 2022 as a whole.
Even with this year-to-date slide, TSLA still remains an outperformer within the EV automaker space. In 2022, Lucid Group (LCID) and Rivian (RIVN) have both fallen more than 60%, while Nio (NIO) has dipped about 50%.
Is TSLA a Buy?
Wall Street holds a generally bullish view of TSLA. Of the 37 analysts surveyed by Seeking Alpha, 15 of them have classified the stock as a Strong Buy. Meanwhile, another seven labeled the company as a Buy.
Of those analysts who have voiced a less-than-bullish view, 11 see TSLA as a Hold, while 3 have issued Sell ratings. A single analyst believes the EV maker is a Strong Sell.
Turning to price targets, analyst have an average figure of $306.92 on the stock. This includes outlier levels of $530.00 a share on the high side and $83.33 to the downside. At the moment, TSLA hovers near the $255.
Seeking Alphaâs Quantitative Ratings provide a more conservative stance than the Street as a whole. The system for grading quantitative measures about a stock puts Tesla as a Hold.
Valuation provides the main sticking point, as the Quant Ratings grade Tesla (TSLA) as an F on this front. Other than that, its ratings were relatively positive. TSLA received an A+ with regards to both growth and profitability, while also receiving an A- when viewed through the momentum lens.
See the breakdown below:

Seeking Alpha contributor Dominic Rinaldi is someone who remains in the bullish camp, placing a Strong Buy rating on TSLA. Explaining the upbeat opinion, Rinaldi stated: âTesla demonstrated it has a talent dominance in AI, robotics, computing, and manufacturing.â
At the same time, fellow SA contributor Livy Investment Research tagged TSLA with a Strong Sell, outlining that the companyâs delivery miss is just the beginning of a delayed slide.