Did Tesla Lower Guidance To Impress Wall Street?

is up more than two percent today after the company announced that its Model S deliveries were

. Analysts were

, but Citron Research got some attention after

a contrarian view:

Investors were quick to respond:

In an email to Benzinga, Citron Executive Editor Andrew Left said that Tesla "lowered deliveries early part of the year and now they just met the original delivery schedule." "The ultimate wall st trick of lowering a bar to just jump over it," he wrote.

"I think we have to know what industry Tesla is about," Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry told Benzinga. "I think most analysts think it's an automotive company to start and end with. That's the reason they have gotten everything wrong." Chowdhry defines a car company as a traditional enterprise that simply builds automobiles. "Would a car company create their own stores across the whole world? The answer is 'no,'" Chowdhry explained. "Would a car company go and create their own gas stations? The answer is 'no.' Would a car company go and build their own oil refineries? The answer is 'no.'" Tesla has built its own stores, its own Supercharger network (in place of gas stations) and its own Gigafactory to build new batteries (in place of an oil refinery). That's why Chowdhry believes Tesla is so much more than an automaker. "Whatever you're reading from such a stupid report is because the person is living in a 100-year-old mindset," Chowdhry added. "That's a fundamental weakness."

Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, told Benzinga that it is "hard to believe that any firm is going to lower deliveries" just so it can beat guidance and raise the stock later in the year. "That's something a hired gun CEO would do, not a founder," said Enderle. "Founders tend to focus on making sure the company is strong, getting products out the door." Enderle noted that Tesla had some manufacturing issues but he believes they have been "largely corrected." "I think it's a mistake to read some type of stock manipulation into this," he added. "But you do realize we're dealing with a very unique vehicle. They're limited by the battery capacity." Tesla hopes to solve that problem with its Gigafactory. Disclosure: