Tesla (TSLA) is dealing with several problems right now. Indeed, the EV maker’s stock has dropped 34% from its all-time high, sales are falling, and CEO Elon Musk is caught in a feud with President Donald Trump. Despite all this, many loyal individual investors are not selling, according to The Wall Street Journal. Nick Dolya, a 48-year-old from Winter Park, Florida, owns about $500,000 worth of Tesla stock and has continued to buy more during recent declines. He and his family are big fans of the Tesla Model Y, and he has already helped convince around 20 others to buy the same car.
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Even after Tesla announced that global vehicle sales fell nearly 14% in Q2 compared to a year earlier, which missed analysts’ estimates, the stock still climbed 5% on Wednesday to $315.65. That’s largely thanks to its dedicated retail investor base. Unlike most tech giants in the “Magnificent Seven,” Tesla has the largest share of ownership by individual investors rather than big institutions. The company’s shares were also the most actively traded on Interactive Brokers (IBKR) over the past week, with buy orders far outweighing sell orders. Some investors even piled into a leveraged ETF that gives double exposure to Tesla’s stock.
However, some Wall Street analysts are warning that the stock might not have much more room to grow. For example, CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson said the firm’s discounted cash-flow valuation model suggests that Tesla stock’s fair value is around $258, despite maintaining a Hold rating with a $320 price target. It is worth noting that Tesla is currently trading at about 132 times its earnings, compared to the S&P 500 average of 22.2 and even above Tesla’s own 10-year average of 125.7. While that’s a high valuation and carries risk, many individual investors don’t seem to mind. As one user wrote on X: “I will be buying every big red day… Let’s get rich together.”
What Is the Prediction for Tesla Stock?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on TSLA stock based on 13 Buys, 12 Holds, and nine Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average TSLA price target of $285.73 per share implies 10% downside risk.
