Investor's Corner
Tesla price targets drop for varying reasons, but some feel like a reach
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) price targets were dropped by several firms due to varying reasons, but some feel like a reach.
It is no secret Tesla stock has been beaten and battered so far this year. As of February 6, shares are down over 25 percent, and the slide truly started to get intense after the company’s Q4 Earnings Call.
While some analysts called the call “a trainwreck,” others’ focuses were on a wide variety of issues. Some of them that were spoken of were Tesla’s lack of annual guidance, no narrative on price cuts, and a general lack of strategy.
Shares felt the pressure shortly after the call, but firms are still trying to grasp their outlook for the stock as Tesla will navigate what it calls the middle of “two growth waves” as it prepares to launch the next-gen platform sometime in 2025.
Piper Sandler Blames ‘Aging Product Lineup’
Piper Sandler’s Alexander Potter said in a note to investors that more price cuts are likely to take place across Tesla’s vehicles in the future because of an “aging product lineup.”
Earlier in this article, I discussed some reasons for price target downgrades feeling like a reach. This is one of them.
Tesla has done things differently than a lot of traditional car companies, but when you think about its models, there are a few things that the automaker does in a similar fashion.
A lot of OEMs keep the same nameplates on cars for years, updating the looks and tech to offer what feels like a “new” product and encourage buyers to purchase an “updated” version. The Civic, for example, is just one of many vehicles to be developed in “generations,” and every few years, it gets a new look and some new features.
Tesla is doing that with the Model 3 with the release of the “Highland,” if that is what it can be referred to as. The Model S and Model X were updated just a few years ago, and the Model Y is currently in the process of an update as well, according to reports.
Tesla also just launched the Cybertruck in November, and it has started deliveries.
It is tough to say that it feels like Tesla’s product lineup is “aging,” at least from my perspective, because:
- The vehicles constantly get better and change through software updates
- Three of the four vehicles in Tesla’s lineup that have been around for more than a year have either been updated or are relatively new. The Model S and Model X were updated in 2021, the Model 3 in late 2023, and the Model Y is only a few years old.
Price cuts from Tesla are more than likely not a result of an “aging product,” but likely to find a sweet spot for demand triggers.
Musk said last year that prices truly depend on market conditions and that the company thinks it “makes sense to sacrifice margins in favor of making more vehicles.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says risky margin sacrifice ‘makes sense’ to up production
Price cuts seem to be more focused on getting cars out of the door and less on incentivizing people to buy an aging product.
Potter trimmed his price target to $225 from $295.
Daiwa Worries About Tesla Governance
Daiwa Securities downgraded Tesla stock to Neutral from Outperform and trimmed its price target to $195 from $245.
Analysts at the firm state that Tesla’s increasing focus on governance concerns could limit the company’s propensity to invest in the long term and could hinder innovation. It did state that long-term investors could be rewarded, but they should be prepared for increased volatility.
Most of the governance issues stem from Musk losing his compensation package after a Delaware Chancery Court Judge ruled it was unfair to Tesla investors, despite the pay package being approved by those shareholders several years ago.
Vivek Ramaswamy calls Elon Musk’s Tesla pay package situation ‘a threat to capitalism’
As a result of the decision, Tesla has hinted it could ditch Delaware for its state of incorporation and head to Texas instead, where its headquarters is located.
Tesla shares are up 1.23 percent today as of 11:40 a.m. on the East Coast.
Disclosure: I own Tesla stock.
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Investor's Corner
Tesla gets tip of the hat from major Wall Street firm on self-driving prowess
“Tesla is at the forefront of autonomous driving, supported by a camera-only approach that is technically harder but much cheaper than the multi-sensor systems widely used in the industry. This strategy should allow Tesla to scale more profitably compared to Robotaxi competitors, helped by a growing data engine from its existing fleet,” BoA wrote.
Tesla received a tip of the hat from major Wall Street firm Bank of America on Wednesday, as it reinitiated coverage on Tesla shares with a bullish stance that comes with a ‘Buy’ rating and a $460 price target.
In a new note that marks a sharp reversal from its neutral position earlier in 2025, the bank declared Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology the “leading consumer autonomy solution.”
Analysts highlighted Tesla’s camera-only architecture, known as Tesla Vision, as a strategic masterstroke. While technically more challenging than the multi-sensor setups favored by rivals, the vision-based approach is dramatically cheaper to produce and maintain.
This cost edge, combined with Tesla’s rapidly expanding real-world data engine, positions the company to scale robotaxis far more profitably than competitors, BofA argues in the new note:
“Tesla is at the forefront of autonomous driving, supported by a camera-only approach that is technically harder but much cheaper than the multi-sensor systems widely used in the industry. This strategy should allow Tesla to scale more profitably compared to Robotaxi competitors, helped by a growing data engine from its existing fleet.”
The bank now attributes roughly 52% of Tesla’s total valuation to its Robotaxi ambitions. It also flagged meaningful upside from the Optimus humanoid robot program and the fast-growing energy storage business, suggesting the auto segment’s recent headwinds, including expired incentives, are being eclipsed by these higher-margin opportunities.
Tesla’s own data underscores exactly why Wall Street is waking up to FSD’s potential. According to Tesla’s official safety reporting page, the FSD Supervised fleet has now surpassed 8.4 billion cumulative miles driven.
Tesla FSD (Supervised) fleet passes 8.4 billion cumulative miles
That total ballooned from just 6 million miles in 2021 to 80 million in 2022, 670 million in 2023, 2.25 billion in 2024, and a staggering 4.25 billion in 2025 alone. In the first 50 days of 2026, owners added another 1 billion miles — averaging more than 20 million miles per day.
This avalanche of real-world, camera-captured footage, much of it on complex city streets, gives Tesla an unmatched training dataset. Every mile feeds its neural networks, accelerating improvement cycles that lidar-dependent rivals simply cannot match at scale.
Tesla owners themselves will tell you the suite gets better with every release, bringing new features and improvements to its self-driving project.
The $460 target implies roughly 15 percent upside from recent trading levels around $400. While regulatory and safety hurdles remain, BofA’s endorsement signals growing institutional conviction that Tesla’s data advantage is not hype; it’s a tangible moat already delivering billions of miles of proof.
Elon Musk
SpaceX IPO could push Elon Musk’s net worth past $1 trillion: Polymarket
The estimates were shared by the official Polymarket Money account on social media platform X.
Recent projections have outlined how a potential $1.75 trillion SpaceX IPO could generate historic returns for early investors. The projections suggest the offering would not only become the largest IPO in history but could also result in unprecedented windfalls for some of the company’s key investors.
The estimates were shared by the official Polymarket Money account on social media platform X.
As noted in a Polymarket Money analysis, Elon Musk invested $100 million into SpaceX in 2002 and currently owns approximately 42% of the company. At a $1.75 trillion valuation following SpaceX’s potential $1.75 trillion IPO, that stake would be worth roughly $735 billion.
Such a figure would dramatically expand Musk’s net worth. When combined with his holdings in Tesla Inc. and other ventures, a public debut at that level could position him as the world’s first trillionaire, depending on market conditions at the time of listing.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index currently lists Elon Musk with a net worth of $666 billion, though a notable portion of this is tied to his TSLA stock. Tesla currently holds a market cap of $1.51 trillion, and Elon Musk’s currently holds about 13% to 15% of the company’s outstanding common stock.
Founders Fund, co-founded by Peter Thiel, invested $20 million in SpaceX in 2008. Polymarket Money estimates the firm owns between 1.5% and 3% of the private space company. At a $1.75 trillion valuation, that range would translate to approximately $26.25 billion to $52.5 billion in value.
That return would represent one of the most significant venture capital outcomes in modern Silicon Valley history, with a growth of 131,150% to 262,400%.
Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, invested $900 million into SpaceX in 2015 and is estimated to hold between 6% and 7% of the private space firm. At the projected IPO valuation, that stake could be worth between $105 billion and $122.5 billion. That’s a growth of 11,566% to 14,455%.
Other major backers highlighted in the post include Fidelity Investments, Baillie Gifford, Valor Equity Partners, Bank of America, and Andreessen Horowitz, each potentially sitting on multibillion-dollar gains.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk hints Tesla investors will be rewarded heavily
“Hold onto your Tesla stock. It’s going to be worth a lot, I think. That’s my bet,” Musk said.
Elon Musk recently hinted that he believes Tesla investors will be rewarded heavily if they continue to hold onto their shares, and he reiterated that in a new interview that the company released on its social accounts this week.
Musk is one of the most successful CEOs in the modern era and has mammothed competitors on the Forbes Net Worth List over the past year as his holdings in his various companies have continued to swell.
Tesla investors, especially those who have been holding shares for several years, have also felt substantial gains in their portfolios. Over the past five years, the stock is up over 78 percent. Since February 2019, nearly seven years ago to the day, the stock is up over 1,800 percent.
Musk said in the interview:
“Hold onto your Tesla stock. It’s going to be worth a lot, I think. That’s my bet.”
Elon Musk in new interview: “Hold on to your $TSLA stock. It’s going to be worth a lot, I think. That’s my bet.” pic.twitter.com/cucirBuhq0
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) February 26, 2026
It’s no secret Musk has been extremely bullish on his own companies, but Tesla in particular, because it is publicly traded.
However, the company has so many amazing projects that have an opportunity to revolutionize their respective industries. There is certainly a path to major growth on Wall Street for Tesla through its various future projects, including Optimus, Cybercab, Semi, and Unsupervised FSD.
- Optimus (Tesla’s humanoid robot): Musk has discussed its potential for tasks like childcare, walking dogs, or assisting elderly parents, positioning it as a massive long-term driver of company value.
- Cybercab (Tesla’s robotaxi/autonomous ride-hailing vehicle): a fully autonomous vehicle geared specifically for Tesla’s ride-sharing ambitions.
- Semi (Tesla’s electric truck, with mentions of expansion, like in Europe): brings Tesla into the commercial logistics sector.
- Unsupervised FSD (Full Self-Driving software achieving full autonomy without human supervision): turns every Tesla owner’s vehicle into a fully-autonomous vehicle upon release
These projects specifically are some of the highest-growth pillars Tesla has ever attempted to develop, especially in Musk’s eyes, as he has said Optimus will be the best-selling product of all-time.
Many analysts agree, but the bullish ones, like Cathie Wood of ARK Invest, are perhaps the one who believes Tesla has incredible potential on Wall Street, predicting a $2,600 price target for 2030, but this is not even including Optimus.
She told Bloomberg last March that she believes that the project will present a potential additive if Tesla can scale faster than anticipated.
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