Best Defensive Companies To Own In Right Now

Best Defensive Companies To Own In Right Now: Tesla Motors Inc.(TSLA)

Tesla Motors, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells electric vehicles and advanced electric vehicle powertrain components. It offers Tesla Roadster, an electric sports car. The company markets and sells its vehicles directly to consumers through the phone and Internet, as well as through its network of Tesla stores. It operates 18 Tesla stores located in Boulder, Chicago, Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Miami, New York, Newport Beach, San Jose, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Copenhagen, London, Milan, Monaco, Munich, Paris, Tokyo, and Zurich. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Travis Hoium]

  While Detroit leaves the high end of the EV market to Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA  ) , instead focusing on cheaper models, there's one company building the capability to compete in the top end of the market. BMW's (NASDAQOTH: BAMXY  ) i-series is the first step into the EV market, and it brings performance and new technology to the equation.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Tesla Motors (TSLA) got a bit of good news in its bid to sell its electric cars directly to consumers today when New Jersey’s General Assembly voted to undo Governor Chris Christies’ decision that blocked the upstart automakers ability to do just that.

  Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

  Now all the bill needs to do is make it through the New Jersey Senate and Tesla will be able to start selling once again. Wedbush analyst Craig Irwin doesn’t think that will be a problem:

  The bill passed by the NJ State Legislature yesterday allows EV sellers that were licensed by the State Motor Vehicle Commission before January 14, 2014 to operate four dealerships, providing they also operate at least one service center. This effectively limits the impact of the legislation on Tesla. The bill must now be voted on in ! the New Jersey Senate before it goes to Governor Christies desk for his signature. We believe that there will be similar strong support for the bill in the New Jersey Senate and expect Tesla will have the authorization to open two additional stores in New Jersey by the end of the year.

  Irwin maintained his $275 price target on Tesla’s shares, as well as his Outperform rating.

  Shares of Tesla have gained 3.6% to $232.45 today at 1:03 p.m.

• [By Tamara Rutter]

  Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA  ) dazzled a crowd last Thursday night during the electric-vehicle maker's battery swap event in California. The company's CEO, Elon Musk, took the stage to host a demonstration of how Model S owners can recharge their all-electric cars in half the time it takes to refill a traditional car with gas.

• [By Tiernan Ray]

  Shares of Tesla Motors (TSLA) are up $24.46, or 13%, at $218.10, after the company this afternoon reported Q4 revenue and earnings per shares that trounced analysts’ expectations, and said it expects to make delivery of 35,000 “Model S” sedans this year, which is higher than the Briefing.com consensus for 29,000.

  Revenue in the three months ended in December rose almost 150%, year over year, to $761 million, yielding EPS of 33 cents.

  Analysts had been modeling $673 million and 21 cents.

  CEO Elon Musk said the company plans to increase production rate this quarter, even though actual quarterly shipments of the Model S will decline slightly from last quarter:

  We expect to deliver over 35,000 Model S vehicles in 2014, representing a 55+% increase over 2013. Production is expected to increase from 600 cars/week presently to about 1,000 cars/week by end of the year as we expand our factory capacity and address supplier bottlenecks. Battery cell supply will continue to constrain our production in the first half of the year, but will improve significantly in the second half of 2014. First quarter prod! uction is! expected to be about 7,400 vehicles, which is significantly higher than the prior quarter production of 6,587 cars. However, as the number of cars in transit to Europe and Asia must grow substantially to support those markets, we plan to deliver approximately 6,400 vehicles in Q1. Deliveries will grow dramatically in future quarters as the logistics pipeline fills.This year, we expect automotive gross margin to increase to about 28% (non-GAAP and GAAP) in Q4 through a series of small design improvements, better supplier pric es and economies of scale. Q1 gross margin should increase very slightly from Q4. For the remainder of the year, gross margin should improve at a faster pace.

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/best-defensive-companies-to-own-in-right-now-2.html