Tesla (TSLA) jumped 18.2% in August, closing at $357.01, with the move largely tied to a shifting narrative around its robotaxi rollout.
The stock trades at a P/E of 330.57 with a market cap of $1.41 trillion. Its 52-week range sits between $297.38 and $498.83.
Tesla’s Q2 earnings, released in late July, were a mixed bag. Revenue came in at $28.24 billion, up 25.5% year over year and above the $26.42 billion estimate. But EPS landed at $0.33, missing the $0.50 consensus by $0.17.
Higher costs tied to robotaxi development, Optimus, AI initiatives, and EV sales incentives all weighed on margins. Net margin stood at just 3.67%.
The robotaxi rollout has been slower than CEO Elon Musk previously outlined. Musk said in January that Tesla would be deployed in “dozens of major cities by the end of the year.” So far in 2026, only six cities have unsupervised robotaxi operations.
Management has since shifted the narrative. Instead of fleet size and city count, the focus is now on miles driven under unsupervised conditions and the development of FSD software version 15.
Nevada lifted the cap on robotaxi vehicles in Clark County from 10 to 5,000 in August. Tesla also held its Cybercab launch event, and safety data updated in mid-August showed a solid safety record, though the dataset remains small compared to Waymo.
Tesla has registered 45 Cybercabs in Texas ahead of an Austin launch. Einride also confirmed plans to deploy at least 75 Tesla Semi trucks in 2026 and 500 by 2027.
On the downside, a reported fatal crash in Illinois has renewed scrutiny of Tesla’s FSD technology. China-made EV sales rose just 3.6% year over year in August, slowing from July. European registrations were mixed.
Tesla also stopped taking Solar Roof orders and has not reported solar deployment numbers since late 2023.
Wall Street’s consensus sits at “Hold” with a $401.74 price target. Royal Bank of Canada and Piper Sandler hold “Outperform” and “Overweight” ratings with targets of $500 and $450 respectively. Morgan Stanley kept its Hold and $400 target, warning a limited initial Cybercab fleet could trigger a sell-off.
Multiple institutional investors opened new Tesla positions in Q2. Vise Technologies purchased a stake valued at approximately $46.8 million. Cannon Wealth Management Services acquired 3,592 Tesla at approximately $1.51 million. Institutional investors collectively own 66.2% of the stock.
CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 Tesla in June at an average of $402.20 to cover tax obligations tied to equity vesting.
Analysts forecast full-year EPS of $0.88 for the current year.
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