Tesla stock falls almost 50% from record high, a 'gut check moment' that has Wall Street bulls doubling down

Tesla (TSLA) banal fell arsenic overmuch arsenic 4% connected Friday, bringing its losses from a grounds adjacent to astir 50% arsenic it continues to spot its post-election rally fade.

And this driblet successful shares of the EV carmaker rompted Wedbush expert Dan Ives — 1 of the electrical conveyance maker’s biggest bulls connected Wall Street — to contented a forceful defence of the stock, doubling down connected his bullish views during what helium calls a "gut cheque infinitesimal for the Tesla bulls (including ourselves)."

In a enactment to clients published precocious Thursday, Ives wrote "the clip has come" to support the stock, with Ives adding Tesla to the firm's "Best Ideas List" and reiterating their Outperform standing and $550 terms people connected the name.

Ives' telephone came aft Tesla banal fell 5.7% Thursday, a determination that followed others connected the Street saying CEO Elon Musk’s arguable relation with the Trump medication was clouding sentiment connected the stock.

Tesla banal closed astatine a grounds of $479 connected Dec. 17; shares were person to $253 successful midday commercialized connected Friday.

"There person been a fig of times successful the Tesla communicative implicit the past decennary that antagonistic sentiment and Street worries person overshadowed the communicative of this unsocial disruptive planetary tech story," Ives wrote.

"From the achromatic knuckle accumulation moments successful 2017/2018 to financing worries to the Musk/Twitter soap opera successful 2022 ... and present present again Tesla bulls find themselves with their backmost against the partition facing planetary antagonistic sentiment astir Musk/DOGE and the Trump Administration.

"This is simply a gut cheque infinitesimal for the Tesla bulls (including ourselves) aft this monolithic sell-off successful Tesla shares with fears mounting."

Ives holds the highest terms people for Tesla among the 48 Wall Street analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance. On average, Wall Street analysts person a $346 per stock terms people connected the banal implicit the adjacent 12 months. Shares closed Thursday's trading sessions astatine $263.

Tesla banal successful February recorded its biggest diminution to date.

Shares person given up astir each of their gains that followed the predetermination of Donald Trump. Musk became 1 of Trump's cardinal surrogates connected the run way successful the last months of the 2024 election.

In Ives' view, Musk's foray into authorities puts little than 5% of Tesla's planetary income astatine hazard contempt what Ives calls "the planetary draconian communicative for Musk."

"Importantly," Ives added, "we expect Musk volition amended equilibrium his clip betwixt DOGE and Tesla/SpaceX implicit the people of 2025 and immoderate of these distraction issues volition fade. We proceed to judge the champion happening that ever happened to Musk and Tesla was Trump successful the White House arsenic this volition make a deregulatory situation with a national autonomous roadmap cardinal to the Tesla aureate strategical vision."