At a Glance: The Q·Score

AAPL posts a Q·Score of 7.6, labelled Bullish, while TSLA registers 5.8, labelled Neutral — a gap of 1.8 points on a 10-point scale. In a side-by-side comparison, a gap of that magnitude typically reflects meaningful, consistent differences across multiple dimensions rather than one outlier metric. As the section-by-section breakdown below shows, that is exactly what the data reveals here.

Quality — Profitability and Capital Efficiency

AAPL leads decisively on Quality. Its net profit margin — the share of each revenue dollar that survives all costs and taxes as net income — stands at 27.6%, compared with TSLA's 3.7%. That nearly eight-to-one difference in margin is compounded by an equally dramatic gap in return on equity (ROE), a measure of how much profit a company generates relative to shareholders' invested capital: AAPL's ROE is 148.8%, a figure that reflects years of aggressive share buybacks concentrating earnings among fewer shares, while TSLA's ROE sits at 4.7%. In plain terms, AAPL is currently converting capital into profit at a rate that is roughly 32 times more efficient by this measure. The data gives AAPL an overwhelming edge on this dimension.

Health — Balance Sheet and Execution

The Health dimension examines financial resilience and operational consistency. One of the clearest signals here is EPS beat rate — the proportion of recent quarters in which a company's reported earnings per share exceeded analyst expectations. AAPL's beat rate is 100%, meaning it has cleared the consensus bar in every quarter captured in the dataset. TSLA's beat rate is 50%, indicating a more uneven track record of meeting market expectations. Debt and liquidity ratios are not provided in the underlying data this week, so the beat-rate comparison carries particular weight in this dimension. On execution consistency alone, the data gives the edge to AAPL on Health.

Growth — Revenue, Earnings, and Surprise

This is the dimension where the picture becomes most nuanced. TSLA shows stronger top-line momentum, with revenue growth of 25.5% versus AAPL's 16.4% — a meaningful gap that reflects TSLA's continued expansion across vehicles, energy, and services. However, revenue growth tells only part of the story. Earnings growth — the rate at which profits are actually increasing — swings the dimension sharply in AAPL's favour: AAPL's earnings grew 28.7%, while TSLA's contracted by 3.0%. Negative earnings growth alongside strong revenue growth typically signals that costs are rising faster than sales, compressing the bottom line. AAPL's 100% EPS beat rate further reinforces that its growth is landing above expectations, not just on paper. The data gives the edge to AAPL on Growth, driven by the earnings trajectory.

Valuation — Price Relative to Fundamentals

Valuation — assessed by comparing a stock's price to its underlying financial metrics — is where TSLA's data stands out most starkly. The forward P/E ratio (the stock price divided by projected earnings per share over the next twelve months) is 164.0x for TSLA and 34.8x for AAPL. For context, a forward P/E in the low-to-mid 30s is elevated by broad market standards but not unusual for large-cap technology companies with strong cash generation; a forward P/E above 160x is exceptional by almost any sector benchmark and implies that the market is pricing in a very substantial improvement in future earnings relative to today's levels. On analyst consensus price targets, AAPL's current price sits approximately 1.5% above the consensus target, suggesting the stock is trading marginally ahead of where the 39 covering analysts collectively see fair value. TSLA, by contrast, shows implied upside of 11.6% to its consensus target across 38 analysts, meaning the stock is trading below where analysts collectively peg it. The Valuation dimension — which rewards lower multiples and greater implied upside — gives the edge to TSLA, though AAPL's more grounded multiple reflects its current earnings power.

Sentiment — Analyst Consensus

Analyst sentiment, measured by the proportion of covering analysts carrying a positive rating, is modestly in AAPL's favour. 57% of the 39 analysts covering AAPL hold a positive rating, compared with 44% of the 38 analysts covering TSLA. Neither figure represents a commanding consensus, and the gap of 13 percentage points is notable without being dramatic. What is worth observing is the divergence between TSLA's Valuation signal and its Sentiment reading: despite the stock trading below the analyst consensus price target — implying meaningful upside — fewer than half of covering analysts carry a positive rating. That split suggests analysts see potential price appreciation in their models while remaining cautious about the fundamental picture, particularly the earnings contraction and elevated multiple. AAPL's sentiment is more aligned with its fundamentals, though a 57% positive ratio across a large analyst community indicates a measured rather than euphoric view. The data gives the edge to AAPL on Sentiment.

What the Data Shows

AAPL's Q·Score of 7.6 outpaces TSLA's 5.8 by 1.8 points, with the gap driven most heavily by Quality, Growth (on an earnings basis), and Sentiment — dimensions where AAPL's profitability, earnings trajectory, and analyst alignment all register materially stronger numbers. The Valuation dimension is the one area where TSLA's data shows a relative advantage, reflecting its lower current price relative to analyst targets, though that advantage is offset by a forward P/E of 164x that embeds significant expectations about future earnings recovery. The Health dimension, anchored by EPS beat rates, also favours AAPL. The most genuinely close dimension is Sentiment, where both stocks sit in a moderate range without a strong consensus in either direction.

Explore the Full Comparison

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