The shares of automaker Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) are soaring this morning, after the company's second-quarter production and delivery numbers shot past Wall Street's expectations and shattered previous records. While the stock is eyeing its biggest swing in over a month, up 6.7% at $239.50, analysts are sharing mixed sentiment. Baird said the "deliveries are sustainable," while Hargreaves Lansdown said it would "remain cautious for now," given TSLA's "history of significant swings in performance from quarter to quarter."
While the brokerage bunch has held steady on its ratings so far, there's definitely room for upgrades, should some of these gains hold steady. While eight still call TSLA a strong buy, five "hold" ratings and nine "sell" or worse ratings are still on the table. Independent Research raised its price target to $195 from $185 despite keeping its "sell" rating.
While TSLA recently bottomed out at two-year lows on June 3, the stock has staged a strong rally off its bottom, with an 8.2% surge the next day. While the equity recently ran out of steam beneath its $230 region, today's pop has it trading at seven-week highs and pacing for its first close atop its 60-day moving average -- which has acted as pressure for the security of late -- for the first time since its late-January pre-bear gap levels. Plus, the shares of Tesla stock are eyeing their straight fifth weekly win, the stock's longest streak since November.
While shorts have started to unwind in the past two weeks, down 5.1%, the 41.46 million shares sold short still represent 35.1% of the stock's available float. At TSLA's average pace of trading, it would take nearly four days to buy back all these bearish bets, leaving the door cracked for a short squeeze.
Options traders are already flocking to the stock, with 99,000 calls and 140,000 puts across the tape so far, two times what's typically seen at this point. The July 225 put is most popular so far where buy-to-open activity is seemingly taking place.