Savvy investors who chose to buy $1,000 worth of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares at the very start of 2023 could count themselves lucky as they ended the year approximately $1,300 richer after the value of their investment more than doubled to $2,373.82.
Last year, while much of the electric vehicle (EV) market was struggling in a climate of recessionary fears, decreasing demand, and strengthening competition, Elon Musk’s EV maker was going strong.
The year brought many exciting developments for the firm as it expanded its charger network and associated agreements, negotiated a new factory in India, announced a new and relatively low-cost model, and launched its highly anticipated Cybertuck.
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Finally, Tesla also set a new delivery record, having shipped as many as 1,808,581 vehicles in the 12-month period.
The new year, however, made evident that even the company that enabled Musk to make at least $114 per second in 2023 could not escape the grip of the ongoing EV winter that saw traditional car makers scale down on their electric vehicle production and some of its competitors sink so much on the stock market that they were removed from the Nasdaq 100 index.
Tesla in 2024: a winning investment?
The decline in the EV market in 2024 has been so pronounced that, by the end of January, people started talking about the bursting of the EV bubble, and some analysts started predicting that Tesla shares will fall as low as $23.53.
Indeed, TSLA is 19.31% in the red year-to-date (YTD), meaning that an investor who bought $1,000 worth of shares on January 1 would have lost $194.10 on their investment as it would be worth $806.90 by February 16.
Still, the more recent stock market moves indicate that a purchase of Tesla shares on New Year’s Day isn’t necessarily a losing bet, as there has been a noticeable rally in recent weeks. For example, in the last 5 trading days, TSLA rose 5.41%, and the last full session saw it close at $200.45 – 6.22% in the green.
Additionally, the rally persisted into extended trading, and the EV maker’s stock is 1.54% up by press time in Friday’s pre-market.
Finally, should Tesla manage to reach analysts’ highest price target of $345 by December 31, a $1,000 investment from January 1 would ultimately be worth approximately $1,388.78.
Unfortunately, if TSLA only climbs to the average price target of $220.26 – which would be a 9.88% jump compared to the press time price – an investor would still have lost approximately $113. Even more alarmingly, if the most bearish scenario plays out, a $1,000 January 1 purchase would depreciate to just $94.72.
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Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.
