Some investors may be hesitant about buying Tesla right now, but one analyst is bullish on the stock. Over the last 12 months, the stock of Elon Musk's auto giant has plunged by nearly 14.5%. Shares also took a hit on Tuesday, after Tesla delivered far fewer cars than expected by analysts polled by FactSet in the first quarter of the year. The U.S. EV giant said it delivered 386,810 vehicles in the January to March quarter , below the roughly 457,000 analysts had predicted. One global autos analyst, however, sees opportunities in investing in Tesla, particularly in the longer term. "The stock, despite this performance today, is only down like 4.5%, which makes me think that expectations are already really low," Tom Narayan from RBC Capital Markets told CNBC's " Squawk Box Asia " on April 3. TSLA YTD mountain Year-to-date shares in Tesla The investment bank has an outperform rating on Tesla at a target price of $298, giving it close to 79% potential upside. Among Tesla's segments that Narayan is looking at favorably is its full self-driving product. "FSD is an incredible product. And that version 12 is out there now — I watched a bunch of YouTube videos and people are really impressed by this product, maybe that gets people in the showrooms, maybe it gets people to subscribe to it maybe it gets people to buy cars. So there is that near term catalyst," the analyst said. As for the longer term, Narayan is looking at pockets of growth beyond Tesla's automotive business. "Bigger than everything else, most of my valuation is on things like energy storage, something nobody's talking about as huge opportunity for them. And also autonomy — If FSD works. Now it's a software business with the software multiple," Narayan added. According to FactSet data, of 51 analysts covering Tesla 17 give the stock a buy or overweight rating, while 24 have a hold rating and 10 have a sell or underweight rating. Their average price target is $198.87, giving it 19.4% potential upside.
