Investor's Corner
Tesla stock among biggest potential winners over the next year: analysts
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock is just one of eight companies poised for a rally over the next twelve months, according to analysts who see major upside for some of 2021’s slowest movers.
Tesla, along with Penn National Gaming, Etsy, Mosaic, Mohawk Industries, Under Armour, Enphase Energy, and Freeport-McMoRan, is one of the stocks that has not had a great start to 2021 and has suffered a significant slide in comparison to the stock’s 52-week high. A report from Investors.com says that Tesla is poised for a big 52-week stretch as the automaker could hit its stride through major product developments over the next year that should provide a substantial boost to the company’s stock.
Tesla stock has not performed well in 2021, down 14.28% on the year at the time of writing. Interestingly, Tesla’s meteoric rise in 2020 still puts the automaker’s stock at 214.52% in the black over the past 52 weeks. Tesla shares exploded last year even though the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Despite last year being extremely tough for many companies, Tesla continued to report growth, profitability, an increasing adoption of electrification.
2021 hasn’t told the same story, unfortunately. Although Tesla has proven growth and profitability for seven consecutive quarters, released new, groundbreaking products like the 4680 battery and the Model S Plaid, the stock hasn’t been affected much for some reason. At least not in the positive direction.
But now, analysts are calling for Tesla to have a successful second half to 2021, and the momentum could continue into the first half of 2022. Shares are down 31% currently since its 52-week and record high of $900.40 a share that was reached in early 2021. Regardless, the shares are only down less than 15% on the year, and analysts expect the stock to hit an upside of 5% in one year, giving it a price of $654.03 per share.
While this sounds low, and many Tesla investors believe the stock could reach numbers as high as $700 or $800 if the company can achieve one million deliveries or production units this year thanks to two new production facilities, analysts have a reason for their prediction.
Investors.com says:
“No, that’s not a whopping gain for an S&P 500 stock that dominated in 2020. But simply seeing the stock move higher would be a welcome change. Additionally, analysts think fundamentals back up their target. Tesla’s profit is expected to jump more than 45% just this year to $6.68 a share. Profit growth is propping up Tesla’s still decent 75 IBD Composite Rating.”
Unfortunately, Tesla stock has lagged over the first six months of the year, plagued by media coverage that hasn’t necessarily told the most candid stories regarding the company. Everything from Teslas being banned on Chinese government bases to potential brake problems in China to a six-month delay at the German facility known as Giga Berlin have halted Tesla’s potential growth on Wall Street. Many of these claims have been disproven, yet the automaker hasn’t been able to rebound on Wall Street, not recovering to its record highs.
Despite this, Tesla is still the most valuable automaker on the planet and the ninth-most valuable company in the world. With a market cap of $604.91 billion, Tesla leads Toyota, the thirty-fifth most valuable company globally, with a market cap of $250.58 billion.
Disclosure: Joey Klender is a TSLA Shareholder.
There are a lot of Tesla bulls out there who have astronomical expectations for the company, especially as its arm of reach has gone well past automotive and energy and entered artificial intelligence and robotics.
However, some of the most bullish Tesla investors believe the company could become worth $100 trillion, and CEO Elon Musk does not believe that number is completely out of the question, even if it sounds almost ridiculous.
To put that number into perspective, the top ten most valuable companies in the world — NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, TSMC, Meta, Saudi Aramco, Broadcom, and Tesla — are worth roughly $26 trillion.
Will Tesla join the fold? Predicting a triple merger with SpaceX and xAI
Cathie Wood of ARK Invest believes the number is reasonable considering Tesla’s long-reaching industry ambitions:
“…in the world of AI, what do you have to have to win? You have to have proprietary data, and think about all the proprietary data he has, different kinds of proprietary data. Tesla, the language of the road; Neuralink, multiomics data; nobody else has that data. X, nobody else has that data either. I could see $100 trillion. I think it’s going to happen because of convergence. I think Tesla is the leading candidate [for $100 trillion] for the reason I just said.”
Musk said late last year that all of his companies seem to be “heading toward convergence,” and it’s started to come to fruition. Tesla invested in xAI, as revealed in its Q4 Earnings Shareholder Deck, and SpaceX recently acquired xAI, marking the first step in the potential for a massive umbrella of companies under Musk’s watch.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
Now that it is happening, it seems Musk is even more enthusiastic about a massive valuation that would swell to nearly four-times the value of the top ten most valuable companies in the world currently, as he said on X, the idea of a $100 trillion valuation is “not impossible.”
It’s not impossible
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2026
Tesla is not just a car company. With its many projects, including the launch of Robotaxi, the progress of the Optimus robot, and its AI ambitions, it has the potential to continue gaining value at an accelerating rate.
Musk’s comments show his confidence in Tesla’s numerous projects, especially as some begin to mature and some head toward their initial stages.
Elon Musk
Tesla director pay lawsuit sees lawyer fees slashed by $100 million
The ruling leaves the case’s underlying settlement intact while significantly reducing what the plaintiffs’ attorneys will receive.
The Delaware Supreme Court has cut more than $100 million from a legal fee award tied to a shareholder lawsuit challenging compensation paid to Tesla directors between 2017 and 2020.
The ruling leaves the case’s underlying settlement intact while significantly reducing what the plaintiffs’ attorneys will receive.
Delaware Supreme Court trims legal fees
As noted in a Bloomberg Law report, the case targeted pay granted to Tesla directors, including CEO Elon Musk, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Kimbal Musk, and Rupert Murdoch. The Delaware Chancery Court had awarded $176 million to the plaintiffs. Tesla’s board must also return stock options and forego years worth of pay.
As per Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz Jr. in an opinion for the Delaware Supreme Court’s full five-member panel, however, the decision of the Delaware Chancery Court to award $176 million to a pension fund’s law firm “erred by including in its financial benefit analysis the intrinsic value” of options being returned by Tesla’s board.
The justices then reduced the fee award from $176 million to $70.9 million. “As we measure it, $71 million reflects a reasonable fee for counsel’s efforts and does not result in a windfall,” Chief Justice Seitz wrote.
Other settlement terms still intact
The Supreme Court upheld the settlement itself, which requires Tesla’s board to return stock and options valued at up to $735 million and to forgo three years of additional compensation worth about $184 million.
Tesla argued during oral arguments that a fee award closer to $70 million would be appropriate. Interestingly enough, back in October, Justice Karen L. Valihura noted that the $176 award was $60 million more than the Delaware judiciary’s budget from the previous year. This was quite interesting as the case was “settled midstream.”
The lawsuit was brought by a pension fund on behalf of Tesla shareholders and focused exclusively on director pay during the 2017–2020 period. The case is separate from other high-profile compensation disputes involving Elon Musk.
Investor's Corner
Tesla (TSLA) Q4 and FY 2025 earnings call: The most important points
Executives, including CEO Elon Musk, discussed how the company is positioning itself for growth across vehicles, energy, AI, and robotics despite near-term pressures from tariffs, pricing, and macro conditions.
Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Q4 and FY 2025 earnings call highlighted improving margins, record energy performance, expanding autonomy efforts, and a sharp acceleration in AI and robotics investments.
Executives, including CEO Elon Musk, discussed how the company is positioning itself for growth across vehicles, energy, AI, and robotics despite near-term pressures from tariffs, pricing, and macro conditions.
Key takeaways
Tesla reported sequential improvement in automotive gross margins excluding regulatory credits, rising from 15.4% to 17.9%, supported by favorable regional mix effects despite a 16% decline in deliveries. Total gross margin exceeded 20.1%, the highest level in more than two years, even with lower fixed-cost absorption and tariff impacts.
The energy business delivered standout results, with revenue reaching nearly $12.8 billion, up 26.6% year over year. Energy gross profit hit a new quarterly record, driven by strong global demand and high deployments of MegaPack and Powerwall across all regions, as noted in a report from The Motley Fool.
Tesla also stated that paid Full Self-Driving customers have climbed to nearly 1.1 million worldwide, with about 70% having purchased FSD outright. The company has now fully transitioned FSD to a subscription-based sales model, which should create a short-term margin headwind for automotive results.
Free cash flow totaled $1.4 billion for the quarter. Operating expenses rose by $500 million sequentially as well.
Production shifts, robotics, and AI investment
Musk further confirmed that Model S and Model X production is expected to wind down next quarter, and plans are underway to convert Fremont’s S/X line into an Optimus robot factory with a capacity of one million units.
Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet has surpassed 500 vehicles, operating across the Bay Area and Austin, with Musk noting a rapid monthly expansion pace. He also reiterated that CyberCab production is expected to begin in April, following a slow initial S-curve ramp before scaling beyond other vehicle programs.
Looking ahead, Tesla expects its capital expenditures to exceed $20 billion next year, thanks to the company’s operations across its six factories, the expansion of its fleet expansion, and the ramp of its AI compute. Additional investments in AI chips, compute infrastructure, and future in-house semiconductor manufacturing were discussed but are not included in the company’s current CapEx guidance.
More importantly, Tesla ended the year with a larger backlog than in recent years. This is supported by record deliveries in smaller international markets and stronger demand across APAC and EMEA. Energy backlog remains strong globally as well, though Tesla cautioned that margin pressure could emerge from competition, policy uncertainty, and tariffs.
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