AAPL vs. TSLA: Looking Ahead

It is easy to see that, historically, $Tesla(TSLA.US)$ has much more of the “growth DNA” than $Apple(AAPL.US)$ . But investors tend to be forward-looking, so we should consider future growth opportunities as well.
Apple could be seen as a growth company due to the untapped opportunities in areas like mixed reality, the metaverse, and even autonomous electric vehicles – Tesla’s wheelhouse.
Of course, one must believe that these growth avenues could become game-changers for Apple. When it comes to the current product and services portfolio, it is hard to see how smartphones and laptops may provide much of a growth path for Apple over many years.
It is probably easier to see the growth argument for Tesla. The company has been revolutionizing the automotive industry. According to Statista, sales of battery and plug-in hybrid EVs should more than double between 2022 and 2027, and Tesla is the industry leader.
This is not even to mention other opportunities that Tesla could explore. These include battery applications outside the automotive industry and driverless technology in public transportation, including the anticipated autonomous taxi.
But let’s leave the qualitative discussion aside for a moment and focus on the numbers. According to YCharts, sell-side analysts believe that Apple’s EPS (earnings per share) will continue to grow over the next five years, but by only 11% annualized.
On the other hand, and off of a much lower base, Tesla’s EPS could climb by an annual rate of 29% over the next half-decade, according to Wall Street. Clearly, Tesla looks much more like a growth company than Apple, at least based on the expected bottom-line trend.
From a valuation point of view, Tesla better justifies its status as a growth stock by trading at a next-year P/E of 26x – much lower now than the 80x of early 2022, as the share price has tanked lately. Apple, on the other hand, commands a lower forward earnings ratio of 20x.
In the battle of growth stocks...