The real story of Tesla's earnings report last night is the "aggressive acceleration of management's already aggressive plans to ramp capacity and assembly," JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman tells investors in a post-earnings research note. Tesla has for some time guided to 500,000 units in 2020, but CEO Elon Musk last night "doubled down" on the guidance, saying the 500,000 units would come two years earlier in 2018, Brinkman writes. The analyst sees "significant obstacles" to the outlook and does not believe Tesla will be able to achieve 500,000 units of total production in 2018. He cautions investors against incorporating the new guidance into their earnings or valuation assumptions. Brinkman raised his price target for Tesla shares to $185 from $170 and keeps an Underweight rating on the name. Underweight is JPMorgan's equivalent of a sell rating. The electric carmaker is trading up 4% to $230.95 in the pre-market.

JPMorgan sees the risk of further negative earnings revisions and continued multiple compression for Tesla after the company's Q1 results tracked softer than recently significantly reined in estimates. Tesla shares "may be rescued" near term from the effect of lower near-term earnings expectations, on account of its efforts to refocus attention on autonomous robo-taxis and the proclamation yesterday that certain new product introductions previously planned for the second half of 2025 would be accelerated in an effort to rekindle growth, the analyst tells investors in a research note. However, JPMorgan does not think the shares can sustain long term their current "still lofty valuation" as investors increasingly incorporate the implications of the near-term expectations reset for long-term growth. It keeps an Underweight rating on Tesla with a $115 price target.

Tuesday's total option volume of 40.6 million contracts resulted in net open interest growth of 5.36 million calls and 4.67 million puts. Tesla (TSLA), AGNC Investment Corp. (AGNC), Amazon (AMZN) and Ford (F) saw the greatest growth. Top five new positions opened include 40k Wal-Mart (WMT) May-24 59 calls, 37k AGNC Investment Corp. (AGNC) Sep-24 8 puts, 36k AGNC Investment Corp. (AGNC) Sep-24 7 puts, 28k Ford (F) 4/26 weekly 13 calls and 26k Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) May-24 20 calls.

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Roth MKM analyst Craig Irwin keeps a Neutral rating and $85 price target on Tesla after its Q1 earnings miss while noting that the stock's valuation now looks "even more stretched". The company has shifted the focus to a pull-forward in low-cost vehicle production to as early as late-2024, vs. prior expectation of the second half of 2025, noting that it will use existing production lines and believes the new vehicles will allow for annual production of around 3M vehicles before additional capex, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The planned unveiling of RoboTaxi at the August 8th Analyst Day could also backfile, with the management continuing to talk up autonomy in spite of the "too slow" progress, the firm added.

At the conclusion of the company's earnings conference call yesterday, Martin Viecha stated: "I wanted to let the investment community know that about a month ago, I met up with Elon and Vaibhav and announced that I'll be moving on from the world of Investor Relations. I'll be hanging around for another couple of months or so. So feel free to reach out at any time. But after the seven year sprint, I'm going to be taking a break and spending some good quality time with my family."

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives lowered the firm's price target on Tesla to $275 from $300 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. Tesla delivered a rip the band-aid off Q1 and disaster results that were well expected by the Street after a brutal delivery quarter as demand softened globally with China the main culprit for weakness, the firm says. Last night, in a much needed conference call, "Elon Musk finally stepped up as the adult in the room and laid the foundation for Tesla's growth strategy with most importantly a lower cost vehicle now slated for 2025 production and delivery." While the firm believes the bears so far in 2024 have won this battle and been very right, the next wave of the Tesla growth story and autonomous vision is now forming.

Truist lowered the firm's price target on Tesla to $162 from $176 and keeps a Hold rating on the shares. The company's Q1 results underperformed expectations, but its messaging around new auto products and improving AI developments were distinctly positive surprise intended to smoothe the performance between the prior growth wave of Model 3/Y demand and the next growth wave around the next-gen vehicle ramp, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm adds however that risks remain elevated and include a big recent price cut, significant recent management dislocations, and the overhang from CEO Musk's compensation package dispute.

UBS lowered the firm's price target on Tesla to $147 from $160 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. UBS remains on the sidelines after Tesla's Q1 results, and while Tesla is increasingly a play on autonomy and progress is being made, the firm is cautious on near-term viability. UBS sees limited growth for the current lineup and lack of clarity on what these "new vehicles" could bring, the analyst tells investors in a research note.

BofA upgraded Tesla to Buy from Neutral with a $220 price target.