Top 2 Earnings Surprises Wall Street Never Saw Coming — Time to Buy or Sell?

4 weeks ago 7

Fahad Saleem

Fri, July 31, 2026 astatine 11:25 AM CDT 4 min read

For this article, we specify a astonishment arsenic a institution reporting net oregon gross that moves successful the other absorption from Wall Street's year-over-year expectations.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) second-quarter net unexpectedly fell twelvemonth implicit twelvemonth portion Wall Street was expecting growth. The banal is down 30% truthful acold this year. Time to bargain the dip?

The surprise: Wall Street expected nett to climb. It didn't. Operating borderline fell from 4.1% a twelvemonth agone to 1.41% this quarter. Free currency travel went antagonistic for the archetypal clip successful 2 years, adjacent with cars selling retired of inventory.

The bull case: Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) ended 4th with $43.5 cardinal successful currency and its largest bid backlog since 2023. Trailing-twelve-month gross passed $100 cardinal for the archetypal clip ever. The vigor part deployed 13.5 GWh of storage, its second-best 4th connected record. Robotaxi is present moving successful 7 U.S. markets, and work margins deed an all-time precocious of 14.1%.

The carnivore case: 2026 CapEx guidance tops $25 billion, astir triple past year's $8.5 billion, and Tesla is lining up different $30 cardinal successful indebtedness to screen it. Auto gross borderline slipped from 19.2% to 16.3% successful a azygous quarter. Energy borderline fell adjacent harder, from 39.5% to 20.4%. Overseas, BYD doubled its EU marketplace stock and pulled adjacent with Tesla, portion Rivian's R2 chips distant astatine U.S. stock and Chinese automakers ain the location turf.

The stock's PEG ratio sits astatine 4.72. Forward P/E is supra 170x.

Buy oregon sell?  Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is spending grounds sums connected businesses that haven't proven themselves yet, portion the car concern it's known for keeps losing pricing power. If you judge successful the robotaxi and Optimus story, this looks similar a inexpensive entry. If you request net maturation to warrant the terms tag, the lawsuit isn't determination yet.

General Motors Co (NYSE: GM) precocious posted net and amazed Wall Street connected revenue. Analysts had expected a flimsy drop. Instead, GM's gross rose. But is the banal a semipermanent bargain for investors? Let's analyze.

General Motors Co (NYSE: GM) sold less cars and inactive made much money. U.S. portion income fell 4%, but gross went up anyway. The mean GM conveyance sold for astir $52,000 during the quarter, and that's the reason. Higher prices, not much volume, drove the surprise.

The bull case: Trucks and SUVs are carrying GM close now. The institution has implicit 4% of the U.S. full-size pickup market. GM's OnStar and Super Cruise are turning into a existent 2nd concern too. Deferred gross is up astir 50% twelvemonth implicit year, subscribers are adjacent 13 million, and GM expects double-digit maturation present done 2027. Jefferies raised its terms people to $99 aft the net people and present sees 2027 EPS reaching $16.

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