Tesla stock snapped a five-day losing streak on Wednesday. Giving investors a chance to think about rewards instead of just the risks.
Shares of the electric vehicle maker were up 1.32% in after-hours trading on Thursday at $340.95, after rising 2.4% on Wednesday. S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.1% trading flat, respectively.
“Tesla’s stock has been under heavy pressure for a myriad of reasons in 2025 after a historic run post President [Trump’s] win in November,” wrote Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a Wednesday evening report.
“Myriad” includes CEO Elon Musk’s political activities at DOGE, his OpenAI bid, self-driving competition from BYD, weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, and even h0tter-than-expected monthly inflation data.
Higher inflation makes it less likely interest rates are coming down, and higher rates make buying a new Tesla, or any new car, more costly when buyers finance part of the purchase.
Ives still believes Musk’s Washington relationship will yield benefits for the auto maker. “The deregulatory landscape in the Beltway will lay the groundwork for a federal autonomous roadmap which we believe unlocks a $1 trillion of valuation alone for Tesla over the coming years,” he wrote.
Ives rates Tesla stock Buy and has a $550 price target for shares. That values Tesla at about $1.8 trillion. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas rates shares Buy, too. His price target is $430.
“Tesla is well positioned in the metamorphosis of U.S. manufacturing in the AI era,” wrote Jonas in a Wednesday report. “Data is defining the software. Software is defining the hardware. Hardware is defining the manufacturing.”
He views Tesla as a vertically integrated AI play. Tesla has millions of cars on the road generating data, which can develop the software to make cars drive themselves. It also has the manufacturing expertise to build the cars.
To be sure, those are two Tesla bulls convinced Tesla is far more than a car company. Their target prices average $490 a share. The average analyst price target for Tesla stock is about $381, according to FactSet.
Coming into Thursday trading, Tesla stock is down about 17% so far this year. Almost all of that drop came during the five-day losing streak that ended on Wednesday.