Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares rose as much as 20 percent today after the company smashed earnings expectations, reporting first quarter earnings of 12 cents per share—compared to estimates of 3 cents per share for the quarter.
On Wednesday right before Tesla’s released its earnings report, Longboard Asset Management CEO Cole Wilcox appeared on Bloomberg Television to talk about the company and why he believes it’s the next Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and that CEO Elon Musk is the next Steve Jobs.
He drew some comparisons with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by looking at the execution Tesla has had and how many times it “probably should have failed as a company.” He said that Musk certainly does have some of the same creative abilities as Jobs and that we’ll have to see if he can turn Tesla into the powerhouse that Apple is.
Wilcox said in April that the many investors who are shorting shares of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) are in for trouble. He has also set his price target for the stock at a bullish $200 per share.
In Wilcox’s view a number of factors go into whether Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) will hit his price target. He said how quickly the company hits its 25 percent gross margin target will play a big role in whether the company’s stock hits $200 per share. He listed other factors as massive acceleration in demand, the creation of latent demand for Tesla’s next-generation vehicles, and sales and marketing.
Wilcox said he’s also evaluated the company’s supply chain and that it appears that they’ve worked out all the kinks and are turning out very high quality vehicles. He predicts that the company’s sales trends will go higher.
