Tesla stock rose early Thursday, helped by a new report from Wall Street. Gains didn’t last, and the stock snapped a four-day win streak as the market sold off.
Shares of the electric-vehicle maker traded as high as $436.23, but closed at $417.07, down 2.7%, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.6% and 1.3%, respectively.
Early on, shares were helped by Tigress Research, which “resumed” coverage of Tesla stock with a Buy rating and a $550 price target. Tigress is optimistic about AI.
”The physical AI growth flywheel, driven by expanding [Full Self-Driving] subscriptions, robo-taxis, and Optimus robots, will drive a multi-layered, multi-year growth trajectory,” it said in a research note.
Tesla is pivoting away from EVs and toward “physical AI” applications that interact with the world. Tesla’s FSD driver-assistance product and robo-taxis are examples of its AI-trained applications. Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, is another example.
Overall, 42% of analysts covering Tesla stock rate shares Buy, according to FactSet, while the average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%.
The average analyst price target for Tesla stock is about $424, but there are a variety of views on the correct level. On the high end, there are a handful of $600 calls and about a dozen in the $500 range. The low-end targets tend to range from $100 to $300.
If Tesla stock closes in the green, it will mark five consecutive days of gains. Tesla stock has added about 8% over its four-day run but is still about $3 below its Jan. 28 close, before Tesla reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.
Since earnings, the news has been dominated by one of CEO Elon Musk’s other companies, SpaceX. It acquired Musk’s AI company xAI on the way to a likely midyear initial public offering.
Musk talked about reorganizing xAI to “improve speed of execution” on Wednesday, adding, “As a company grows, especially as quickly as xAI, the structure must evolve just like any living organism.”
He’s done that before. Musk cut about 10% of Tesla’s workforce in 2024. “We’ve had a long period of prosperity from 2019 to now, and so if the company…organizationally is 5% wrong per year, that accumulates to 25%, 30% of inefficiency,” said Musk at the time. “We’ve made some corrections along the way. But it is time to reorganize the company for the next phase of growth.”
As for Tesla, investors are waiting for something to move the stock. The likeliest candidates are robo-taxis and robots, as Tigress points out. Tesla plans to expand its robo-taxi service to nine cities in the first half of 2026. It also plans to make the third generation of its Optimus robot this year.
Coming into Thursday trading, Tesla stock was up 30% over the past 12 months.