Tesla (TSLA) stock fell nearly 11% this week, bringing its losses from a record close to nearly 50% as it continues to see its post-election rally fade.
At close: March 7 at 4:00:00 PM EST
This drop in shares of the EV carmaker prompted Wedbush analyst Dan Ives — one of Tesla’s biggest bulls on Wall Street — to issue a forceful defense of the stock, doubling down on his bullish views during what he calls a “gut check moment for the Tesla bulls (including ourselves).”
In a note to clients published late Thursday, Ives wrote “the time has come” to defend the stock, adding Tesla to the firm’s “Best Ideas List” and reiterating his Outperform rating and $550 price target on the name.
Ives’s call came after Tesla stock fell 5.7% Thursday, a move that followed others on the Street saying CEO Elon Musk’s controversial association with the Trump administration was clouding sentiment on the stock.
Tesla stock closed at a record of over $479 on Dec. 17. Shares have fallen roughly 45% from that high, ending Friday’s trading session at roughly $263, their lowest closing price since Nov. 5.
“There have been a number of times in the Tesla story over the past decade that negative sentiment and Street worries have overshadowed the narrative of this unique disruptive global tech story,” Ives wrote.
“From the white knuckle production moments in 2017/2018 to financing worries to the Musk/Twitter soap opera in 2022 … and now here again Tesla bulls find themselves with their back against the wall facing global negative sentiment around Musk/DOGE and the Trump Administration.
“This is a gut check moment for the Tesla bulls (including ourselves) after this massive sell-off in Tesla shares with fears mounting.”
Ives holds the highest price target for Tesla among the 48 Wall Street analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance. On average, Wall Street analysts have a $346 per share price target on the stock over the next 12 months. Shares closed Thursday’s trading sessions at $263.
Tesla stock in February recorded its biggest decline to date.
Shares have given up nearly all of their gains that followed the election of Donald Trump. Musk became one of Trump’s key surrogates on the campaign trail in the final months of the 2024 election.
In Ives’s view, Musk’s foray into politics puts less than 5% of Tesla’s global sales at risk despite what Ives calls “the global draconian narrative for Musk.”
“Importantly,” Ives added, “we expect Musk will better balance his time between DOGE and Tesla/SpaceX over the course of 2025 and some of these distraction issues will fade. We continue to believe the best thing that ever happened to Musk and Tesla was Trump in the White House as this will create a deregulatory environment with a federal autonomous roadmap central to the Tesla golden strategic vision.”
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