At a Glance: The Q·Score

AAPL posts a Q·Score of 7.6, labelled Bullish, while TSLA registers 5.9, labelled Neutral — a gap of 1.7 points on a 10-point scale. In a framework that weights five distinct dimensions, a gap of that size typically reflects consistent advantages across multiple categories rather than dominance in just one. The sections below show exactly where those advantages accumulate and where the two stocks are closer than the headline gap suggests.

Quality — Profitability and Capital Efficiency

AAPL leads this dimension decisively. Its net profit margin — the percentage of revenue that becomes profit after all costs — stands at 27.2%, compared to TSLA's 3.9%. That means for every dollar of revenue AAPL generates, it retains roughly 27 cents as profit; TSLA retains less than four cents. The return on equity (ROE) — a measure of how efficiently a company generates profit from shareholders' capital — tells an even starker story: AAPL's ROE is 141.5%, a figure that reflects years of share buybacks compressing the equity base while profits remain substantial. TSLA's ROE of 4.9% indicates that, at present, the business is generating very modest returns relative to the equity on its books. The data gives AAPL a commanding edge on Quality.

Health — Balance Sheet and Execution

The Health dimension captures balance sheet resilience and management's track record of delivering on earnings expectations. AAPL's EPS beat rate of 100% — meaning it has exceeded analyst earnings-per-share estimates in every reported quarter in the dataset — is as clean a execution record as this framework can register. TSLA's beat rate of 50% reflects a more inconsistent delivery, hitting analyst targets roughly half the time. It is worth noting that the provided dataset does not include debt/equity or current ratio figures for either company, so the execution metric carries particular weight here. A perfect beat rate signals that AAPL's management has consistently set and met expectations, which reduces the uncertainty premium investors typically attach to earnings forecasts. AAPL holds the edge on Health.

Growth — Revenue, Earnings, and Surprise

This is the dimension where the two stocks are closest — and the nuance matters. On revenue growth, AAPL's 16.6% edges TSLA's 15.8%, a difference of less than one percentage point. For companies of this scale — AAPL at a market cap above $4.3 trillion and TSLA above $1.5 trillion — either figure represents meaningful top-line expansion. The sharper divergence appears in earnings growth: AAPL's 21.8% is more than double TSLA's 8.3%. Earnings growth measures how quickly a company's profits are expanding, and a 13.5-percentage-point gap suggests AAPL is translating its revenue gains into profit far more efficiently. TSLA's 50% EPS beat rate also means that even its reported earnings growth has frequently fallen short of what analysts anticipated. The data gives the edge to AAPL on Growth, driven primarily by the earnings growth differential.

Valuation — Price Relative to Fundamentals

Valuation is where TSLA's data stands out most sharply — though not favourably. The forward P/E — the stock price divided by projected earnings per share over the next twelve months — is 30.6x for AAPL and 170.0x for TSLA. In the Technology sector, forward P/Es in the 25–35x range are broadly considered elevated but not unusual for large-cap compounders; AAPL sits within that band. Consumer Cyclical companies like TSLA more typically trade in the 15–30x range for mature businesses, though high-growth or narrative-driven names can command premiums. A forward P/E of 170x implies the market is pricing in an extraordinary acceleration in TSLA's earnings that is not yet visible in the current 8.3% earnings growth rate. On analyst consensus price targets, AAPL's implied upside is +7% from its current price of $294.38, while TSLA's consensus target sits -1% below its current price of $425.30 — meaning the average analyst covering TSLA sees the stock as already trading above their 12-month target. AAPL leads clearly on Valuation.

Sentiment — Analyst Consensus

Sentiment measures the degree of positive analyst conviction surrounding each stock. AAPL has 60% of its 42 covering analysts carrying a positive rating, giving it a meaningful majority. TSLA's 49% positive rating across 41 analysts means fewer than half of those covering the stock hold a favourable view — a notably split picture for one of the most widely followed companies in the market. The near-parity in analyst count (42 vs. 41) means this is a genuine difference in opinion distribution, not a sample-size artefact. One interesting divergence: TSLA's high public profile and retail investor enthusiasm often contrast with more cautious institutional analyst sentiment, and the 49% positive ratio reflects that tension. AAPL holds the edge on Sentiment, though neither stock commands an overwhelming consensus.

What the Data Shows

AAPL's Q·Score of 7.6 outpaces TSLA's 5.9 across nearly every dimension the framework measures: profitability margins that are roughly seven times wider, an earnings growth rate more than double TSLA's, a forward P/E a fraction of TSLA's, a perfect EPS beat record against TSLA's 50%, and a majority analyst positive ratio versus a near-even split. The Growth dimension — where revenue expansion rates are within one percentage point of each other — is the closest contest of the five, and the only area where TSLA's story is broadly comparable. The 1.7-point Q·Score gap reflects a consistent pattern in the underlying data rather than a single outlier metric driving the result.

Explore the Full Comparison

The live, interactive breakdown — updated in real time — is available at quantify.biz/compare/aapl-vs-tsla.