Elon Musk’s electric vehicle (EV) maker, Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA), has made one of the most impressive stock market comebacks of 2024.
Indeed, after being among the worst-performing S&P 500 companies for months, it rocketed back into the green – albeit only 2.22% – in the year-to-date (YTD) chart within days late June.
The rise ensured that, after spending much of the year in the $170 to $180 range and plunging as low as $142 at one point, Tesla stock price today, in the July 17 pre-market, stands at $253.93.
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The rally was driven by a combination of factors, including a stronger-than-expected delivery report in June and enthusiasm about the EV maker’s technological developments – particularly with regard to robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and self-driving.
Despite its successes, experts remain wary about Tesla’s future performance as the stock has recently become exceptionally overbought and due to a price shock it received after the ‘Robotaxi’ event – announced initially for August 8 – was postponed to October.
No certainty about Tesla stock among analysts
There is little agreement among the 35 experts represented on the stock analysis platform TipRanks as 13 of them rate TSLA shares a ‘buy,’ 13 are ‘neutral’ and as many as 9 recommend selling.
Though Tesla is overall listed as ‘hold,’ the average 12-month target forecasts a 24.70% decline to $193.18.
Such a bearish outlook can be explained in several ways, including the speed at which TSLA stock rose in recent weeks and the highly depressing effects of the lowest forecast, which places the EV maker’s price at $22.86.
GJL Research assigned the exceptionally low price target in April and the revision represents a further decrease from the previous forecast of $23.5. The analyst firm tends to emphasize Elon Musk’s history of broken promises and considers the biggest differentiating factor between Tesla and other car companies to be presentation and not something of substance.
The biggest Tesla stock bulls and bears
Still, most recent revisions demonstrate that there is a persistent lack of confidence that TSLA stock will continue with its recent successes.
There have been multiple recent forecast updates indicating an expectation Tesla will drop substantially – such as those assigned by TD Cowen and HSBC – and some that, despite being upgrades, predict the EV maker will trade sideways in the coming weeks – such as the one provided by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Mizuho.
On the other hand, Tesla is not bereft of several prominent bulls, including among the more recent rating revisions. To name a few, on July 16, Baird reiterated its $280 target, on July 12, Citi (NYSE: C) raised its forecast from $182 to $274, and, on July 11, Wedbush confirmed it still expects TSLA stock to rise to $300 in the coming 12 months.
The Street high for Elon Musk’s EV maker – $310 – however, was assigned by Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) already in April, though it was reiterated on July 10.
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