Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shareholders have not had a fun time over the past month. Down 12% since last Monday alone, TSLA stock is the fifth worst-performing stock amongst a group of 300 NASDAQ listings with market caps greater than $2 billion.

When a stock falls 35% from its 52-week high of $389.61 in a matter of weeks, investors have reason to be concerned.

So now, if you own TSLA stock, you have a question to ask yourself. Is this correction is an overreaction by investors based on the new normal when it comes to market volatility or genuine concern that Tesla’s Autopilot system is one more nail in the coffin for a company that skeptics suggest will never make money?

InvestorPlace’s Aaron Levitt recently suggested that Tesla has too many issues for its stock to have any chance of climbing back into the $300s. On April 3, Levitt wrote:

“Shares have had an amazing run-up over the last few years, but with the markets getting dicey, high-growth names like TSLA will be the first to fall on any sort of bad news. And with that, it might be time to take gains in Tesla shares and regroup.”

He’s got a point.

The REAL Bad News for TSLA

While it’s never a good thing when someone dies as a result of a traffic accident, these things happen on a daily basis.  I’m sure Elon Musk is concerned about what happened in Arizona, but when you’re trying to deliver groundbreaking technology, sometimes accidents happen during development.

Again, I’m not trying to make light of the situation, but life moves on.

The real bad news Levitt was alluding to was the first quarter production numbers for the Model 3. Tesla promises 5,000 vehicles per week by the end of June. Baird analyst Ben Kallo was originally expecting 10,000 Model 3 deliveries for the first three months of the year. He’s since lowered that to 8,000 — both numbers are well below the 2,500 per week Tesla was predicting late in 2017.

The Q1 2018 Numbers Are Out

Cutting to the chase, Tesla produced 9,766 Model 3s in the first quarter while delivering 8,130, slightly higher than Kallo’s revised guidance.

Two crucial paragraphs stand out in Tesla’s Q1 2018 Vehicle Production and Deliveries press release.

“In the past seven days, Tesla produced 2,020 Model 3 vehicles. In the next seven days, we expect to produce 2,000 Model S and X vehicles and 2,000 Model 3 vehicles,” stated the company. “It is a testament to the ability of the Tesla production team that Model 3 volume now exceeds Model S and Model X combined. What took our team five years for S/X, took only nine months for Model 3.”

That might sound like hyperbole, but it’s not. The company’s managed to produce 2,000 Model 3s in two consecutive weeks. It now has three months to get to 5,000 Model 3s in two consecutive weeks.

If Tesla delivers the same paragraph above in July — substituting 2,000 for 5,000 — we’re no longer talking about a $270 stock.

The second paragraph that I find interesting is from the opening.

“The Model 3 output increased exponentially, representing a fourfold increase over last quarter. This is the fastest growth of any automotive company in the modern era. If this rate of growth continues, it will exceed even that of Ford and the Model T.”

Again, you might view this as hyperbole, but I don’t. I see it as a company being insanely proud of what it’s accomplishing with the Model 3 and all its other current and future vehicles.

America needs more Tesla’s.

I said that more than five years ago; I still believe it today.

Bottom Line on TSLA Stock

In the face of these most recent production numbers, I think it’s fair to say that Tesla hasn’t driven off course.

Sure, it’s not making any money, but I’m going to back the underdog every time.

Personally, I think Tesla stock is in the bargain bin — but in a good way. Aggressive investors ought to be buying here. 

As of this writing Will Ashworth did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.