Tesla Is 80% Above Its 52 Week Low

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jun 7, 9:51AM EDT

Key Points

Tesla’s Stock Has Done Well Long Term
Battles With Trump Have Hurt Tesla Recently

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Tesla Is 80% Above Its 52 Week Low — © 2024 Getty Images / Getty Images News via Getty Images

People who think Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) stock is doing poorly should think again. For those who bought it at $480 in mid-December, the current $300 price is ugly. For those who bought it a year ago, their return is up 80%. Tesla traded for $168 last June, which is its 52-week low.

However, due to recent problems, Tesla may still have a long way to fall back toward that low.

There was a reason Tesla’s stock was relatively low in mid-2024. First quarter 2024 revenue came in at $21 billion which was below Wall St. expectations, EPS missed expectations as well. The Cybertruck was launched in late 2023 and was priced above what Tesla had forecast. The Cybertruck range on a single charge was also below what Tesla said it would be months before the launch. Investors were skeptical about Tesla’s prospects.

Despite a move up in Tesla’s stock in mid-2024, it did not take off until November, about the same time the results of the 2024 Presidential election were announced. Due to Elon Musk’s relationship with Donald Trump, the stock spiked up. Musk’s work with the federal government, followed by a fallout with the President, led to a significant decline in the stock’s value recently.

Where does Tesla’s stock price go from here? It depends on whether Tesla is an AI company or just a car manufacturer.

Tesla’s robotaxi hits the streets of Austin this month. If it becomes clear that it is a car that requires no driver assistance at all, it will be evident that Tesla has broken through with an AI-powered vehicle. Then, Musk is in a race with other companies led by Alphabet’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Waymo. The results of this race will show who will own the self-driving market in the U.S. Tesla’s work in China is just as important. The growth of EVs there is spectacular. Local car manufacturers claim that they are far along in self-driving technology, too.

If Tesla’s self-driving AI products miss expectations, they may fall into the category of every other EV company. And it may not even keep control of that market, especially in the EU and US. Sales have craters in Europe. Tesla does not release US features. However, it is likely in trouble in the U.S. as well.

Whether Tesla’s stock goes up or down in the future will have as much to do with its technology as the public’s perception of Elon Musk.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.