Tesla get pre-holiday analysts upgrade from two analysts

Tesla (TSLA) recovered +$13.29 or +7.28% on Wednesday, but the stock is still down -1.99% in the past 5 days, -18.45% in the past month and -47.99% YTD.

The stock price declines prompted a pre-holiday upgrade from one analyst, and another sees Tesla approaching value stock territory.

What the analysts are saying

Analyst from Citigroup 

Wednesday, Citi analyst upgraded Tesla stock to Hold from Sell. It isn’t a upgrade to Buy, but investors will likely take it. 

“We feel that some of the prior baked-in expectations that we didn’t agree with are out of stock,” the analyst wrote. “To be sure, macro/competitive concerns are likely to remain an overhang with EV capacity rising, but as we’ve previously written, in a hard economic landing scenario Tesla’s long-term competitive position likely also improves.”

Citigroup raised TSLA price target to $176 a share from $141.33 with the upgrade.

Analyst from Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley analyst laid out some of the “macro/competitive” concerns. “Tesla is approaching our $150 per share bear case, driven by price cuts in China, decelerating EV demand, and other market currents,” wrote the analyst in a Thursday report.

He points out that at current prices, Tesla stock is trading at about 26 times estimated 2025 earnings. That’s not bad for a company he expects to grow sales at 23% a year on average between now and 2030. Against that backdrop, Jonas wonders if a “value opportunity is emerging” in Tesla stock.

Morgan Stanley’s price target for Tesla stock is unchanged at $330 a share. 

Tesla is the only U.S. pure-play electric vehicle (EV) company that generates free cash flow that has achieved manufacturing scale. A deep recession will make it harder for start-ups needing external capital to catch up. A downturn will also hurt traditional auto makers’ cash flow, which they are using to develop EVs and build new battery manufacturing capacity.

Whatever turns the sentiment tide for Tesla stock, Tesla bulls will take it.