Here's what every major analyst thought of Tesla's investor day

Published Thu, Mar 2 202311:40 AM ESTUpdated Thu, Mar 2 20231:26 PM EST

Analysts aren't budging on Tesla coming off an investor day that they see as offering little detail on the electric vehicle maker's future plans. CEO Elon Musk presented the third installment of his "Master Plan," an update to the 2016 Master Plan Part Deux, at the company's investor day on Wednesday. Musk and other executives reiterated the goal of producing 20 million electric vehicles per year by 2030, which would mean a more than 15-fold increase from the 1.31 million delivered in 2022. He also shared plans to build more car and battery cell production plants, while increasing output at already existing locations. Wall Street analysts largely agreed that the plan gave a long-term vision for the company, but they said it lacked specifics on how the electric vehicle giant would get there. Many held the ratings they had on the stock heading into the meeting. "Walking away from Tesla's investor day, we were admittedly disappointed with the overall lack of details on its next-gen platform, including launch timing, vehicle segments and price points, and financial implications," Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner said in a note to clients Thursday. Rosner said part of the disappointment came from the unfulfilled wish among many investors that the company would present details on its next-generation vehicle platform with a timeline and possible launches. Instead, he said the company focused on longer-term investment and transformation initiatives. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi, a noted bear on the stock, called the meeting "somewhat disjointed and fairly technical." "Musk's Master Plan 3 was more a message of hope for widespread electrification than a roadmap for Tesla, and executive updates — while informative — didn't necessarily follow linearly," he said in a Thursday note to clients. The investor day came as investors grow increasingly cautious following Musk's chaotic purchase of Twitter and recent price cuts to some Tesla models . Shares fell in after-hours trading Wednesday and continued to slide in Thursday's session. That's helped push the stock to a decline of more than 3% this week. Still, the stock is up more than 50% in 2023, regaining ground after plummeting 65% in 2022. TSLA 5D mountain Tesla stock chart Here's what Wall Street's top Tesla analysts had to say following the event: JPMorgan Analyst: Ryan Brinkman Price target: $120, a downside of 40.8% from Wednesday's close Rating: Staying underweight "Our estimates and fundamental view on Tesla shares are unchanged after the firm's investor day yesterday which was heavy on discussion relative to clean energy transition and on the company's approach to designing and developing vehicles generally, but short on specifics or measurable metrics to track its progress." Deutsche Bank Analyst: Emmanuel Rosner Price target: $250, an upside of 23.3% from Wednesday's close Rating: Staying buy "All in, we expect a negative market reaction to the event today, and don't anticipate any large potential positive catalysts for the stock in the very near-term. Beyond it, however, as Tesla executes on its cost and efficiency initiatives, we still believe it will deepen its competitive moat and maintain its lead in the electrification space for years to come, prompting us to look past the lower visibility over the project roadmap in the near term." Bank of America Analyst: John Murphy Price target: $225, an upside of 11% from Wednesday's close Rating: Staying neutral "There had been much anticipation that TSLA would make a new product announcement, but the company indicated that it will announce its newest vehicle at a later date. Given the extreme focus on reducing cost and ramping scale, we expect it will be more affordable and in a higher volume segment. TSLA is targeting a 50% reduction in cost for the next generation vehicle relative to its current products. We'd also note that TSLA aims to reduce its reliance on rare earth minerals as mining them has environmental and health risks. TSLA is targeting to use no rare earth minerals in its next drive unit. Separately, TSLA confirmed that it will begin production of the Cybertruck this year." Bernstein Analyst: Toni Sacconaghi Price target: $150, a downside of 26% from Wednesday's close Rating: Staying underperform "A central theme to the meeting was Tesla's cost position, scale and vertical integration - essentially reaffirming of the bull case that Tesla has a structural cost advantage and will use it to achieve 'unprecedented scale'. While it is undeniable that Tesla has a cost advantage compared to developed market peers today (it is less clear that it has a cost advantage over major Chinese players such as BYD), we believe that competitors will increasingly close the gap in cost." Wells Fargo Analyst: Colin Langan Price target: $190, a downside of 6.3% from Wednesday's close Rating: Staying equal weight "It's unclear how long the recent Model3/Y price cuts will sustain demand. Therefore, the lower priced next gen model will be key to maintaining TSLA's targeted 50% delivery CAGR. Recall in Jan 2022 Musk said the lower priced model was not being worked on, which makes the lack of a timeline more concerning (see our preview). There was also no comment on a Model 3/Y refresh or any major update on Tesla Bot or FSD. TSLA said it's reluctant to get involved in lithium mining." Goldman Sachs Analyst: Mark Delaney Price target: $200, a downside of 1.4% from Wednesday's close Rating: Staying buy "The bottom line is that we believe the event should increase investor confidence in Tesla's ability to reduce costs by ~50% with its next generation platform, given the breadth and depth of Tesla's team and how its vertically integrated model allows it to optimize on both cost and performance criteria." — CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report