Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Up 1% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) traded up 1% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $436.89 and last traded at $435.80. 56,355,848 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 21% from the average session volume of 71,681,055 shares. The stock had previously closed at $431.41.

Key Headlines Impacting Tesla

Here are the key news stories impacting Tesla this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Elon Musk defended Tesla’s planned ~$10B spend on Nvidia hardware, framing it as strategic for Tesla’s AI/robotaxi efforts — investors may view this as management committing resources to the company’s high‑margin AI/robotics opportunity. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: New Street Research and other bulls continue to express conviction (New Street boosted a price target to $600), providing buy‑side support that can lift the stock amid short‑term weakness. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Prominent holders (e.g., ARK/Cathie Wood) remain committed, which can stabilize demand from retail/ETF flows despite recent volatility. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Unusually high January options volume shows traders positioning for big moves into Tesla’s late‑January earnings — this boosts near‑term volatility and can amplify both rallies and pullbacks. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Governance/proxy developments from the 2025 annual meeting (vote framing around control/strategy rather than just pay) are drawing investor attention but are not an immediate earnings fundamental. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Musk’s legal fight with OpenAI is moving closer to trial — a reputational/legal risk to monitor, but its direct impact on Tesla revenue is uncertain. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Nvidia’s Alpamayo and a broader Nvidia push into self‑driving AI have renewed concerns that Tesla’s FSD/robotaxi moat could be eroded faster than expected — that competitive threat pressured sentiment after CES announcements. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Tesla’s vehicle deliveries fell in 2025 and the company missed some Q4 delivery expectations, raising near‑term demand/execution concerns that analysts cite when trimming forecasts. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Several firms have cut or reiterated cautious ratings (Truist trimmed its PT to $439; UBS/JPMorgan/DZ Bank among skeptics), and extreme bearish commentary (Gordon Johnson raising a $25 target as a provocative bear stance) adds headline noise and volatility. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling by Director James Murdoch (60,000 shares) and new regulatory proposals (e.g., manual door‑release bill) create modest sentiment/regulatory headwinds. Read More. Read More.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $510.00 target price on Tesla and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Morgan Stanley set a $425.00 price target on Tesla and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Sunday, December 7th. New Street Research raised their price target on Tesla from $520.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, CICC Research upped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $450.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and nine have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $408.54.

Tesla Stock Up 1.0%

The business’s fifty day moving average price is $444.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $393.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 2.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 290.53, a PEG ratio of 6.93 and a beta of 1.83.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. Tesla had a net margin of 5.51% and a return on equity of 6.61%. The firm had revenue of $28.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $24.98 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.72 EPS. Tesla’s revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other Tesla news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $445.40, for a total transaction of $26,724,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 577,031 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $257,009,607.40. The trade was a 9.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kimbal Musk sold 56,820 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $450.66, for a total transaction of $25,606,501.20. Following the sale, the director owned 1,391,615 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $627,145,215.90. The trade was a 3.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 119,457 shares of company stock valued at $53,501,145 in the last quarter. 19.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Turning Point Benefit Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Tesla in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Tesla during the third quarter worth $29,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX purchased a new position in shares of Tesla during the third quarter worth $31,000. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the third quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Chapman Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Company Profile

Tesla, Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) is an American company that designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles, energy generation and energy storage products. Founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, Tesla grew into a vertically integrated mobility and clean‑energy company with Elon Musk serving as its chief executive officer. The company’s stated mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, reflected in its combined focus on electric drivetrains, battery technology, renewable energy products and software.

Tesla’s automotive business includes a lineup of battery‑electric vehicles and related services.