Tesla’s stock (TSLA) closed up about 4% on Tuesday, securing its tenth straight day of gains.
The positive moves mean Tesla has erased all of its year-to-date losses, with the stock up about 5% since the start of the year. Shares have also surged about 75% since hitting 52-week lows in April.
Analysts have credited the company’s second-quarter vehicle production and delivery numbers, which beat Wall Street expectations, along with momentum surrounding Tesla’s artificial intelligence businesses.
“All of a sudden, the market is valuing the growth potential for Tesla,” Seth Goldstein, equity strategist at Morningstar, told Yahoo Finance. “Q1 deliveries surprised to the downside so the market was assuming a lower growth rate, and that’s why we’ve seen the large rally.”
Tesla is set to report its next quarterly results on July 23 after the market close. It’s teased the development of more affordable electric vehicles, which investors see as another key catalyst for growth.
But Goldstein said the company will have to lay out a “solid, concrete timeline” when it comes to the rollout of those cars, which the company previously said could happen as soon as 2025.
“We need to see that being met or pushed up earlier so that [Wall Street] can assume Tesla will see a second wave of delivery growth starting in 2026,” he said. “As long as that narrative remains intact, I think that the stock will be OK. But if that’s pushed out or if management sounds more uncertain that that’s going to happen, then I think we could see the stock falter.”
Outside of earnings and deliveries, investors will also be on the lookout for another growth opportunity: robotaxis. The company is set to unveil its much-anticipated robotaxi on Aug. 8.
Tesla’s stock plummeted in the first half of the year after its fourth-quarter financial report missed on both the top and bottom lines. A 9% year-over-year drop in first-quarter vehicle deliveries sent shares even lower as investors questioned the EV maker’s sky-high valuation and demand still left in the US.
Soon after the delivery miss, the company slashed more than 10% of its staff. At the time, analysts categorized the layoffs as an “ominous signal” for what’s to come.
Competition abroad from Chinese EV makers including Lucid (LCID), Li Auto (LI), Nio (NIO), and XPeng (XPEV) has also served as a significant overhang, fueling a price war that’s forced Tesla to aggressively cut prices in order to compete.
Short sellers have piled into the name as a result — but they’ve now been crushed by its recent rally.
“Short sellers have been up and down in this name over the past couple of years. It was the No. 1 short in the market. Now it’s No. 4 behind … Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL), and Microsoft (MSFT),” S3 Partners’ Ihor Dusaniwsky told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday. “But this is like the OG short. Everyone is still in it.”
