Tesla's stock starts 2023 with a 9% decline after deliveries report disappoints
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Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) slid 9.10% in early trading on Tuesday after investors digested the electric vehicle maker's Q4 deliveries report, which came in below expectations.
The final production deliveries growth tally for 2022 was 40% to fall short of the multi-year 50% growth target set by Tesla (TSLA).
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said the TSLA numbers still show the company is in the early innings of a major growth cycle, but he also reminded that Tesla is being held to a higher standard on a valuation basis.
"With Tesla not reporting 4Q earnings/guidance until late January the debate will now rage on the Street around the 2023 Street outlook with deliveries likely in the 35%-40% range for 2023 as Musk & Co. need to lay out a more conservative number to hit in this jittery backdrop and rip the band-aid off guidance. Demand overall is starting to crack a bit for Tesla and the company will need to adjust and cut prices more especially in China which remains the key to the growth story."
Ives thinks a lot of bad news is already baked into Tesla's (TSLA) share price stock and kept an Outperform rating on the EV stock.
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas estimated Tesla (TSLA) ended Q4 with 14 days worth of supply vs. 8 days at the end of Q3. "Teslaâs 4Q deliveries, while slightly higher than we had expected, are broadly consistent with our views that EV supply may be recovering faster than EV demand, reflecting a material narrative change in the scarcity of EVs on a global basis," he noted. It is unclear if some potential Tesla (TSLA) customers waited to make a purchase due to the IRA-related tax incentives, although the company did not reference that as a factor.
Read more about Wall Street's reaction to the Tesla report. 
Dig further into the Tesla earnings report.