Al Root
It's been a tough week for Tesla stock. But it ends with an upgrade.
German financial company DZ Bank upgraded Tesla to Hold from Sell, according to Wall Street ratings aggregators. Barron's hasn't seen the report. DZ didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. DZ's price target is $385.
Tesla shares were up 0.6% at $376.07, while S&P 500 futures were up 0.1% and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.3%.
The early move leaves Tesla stock down 6.1% for the week. Shares dropped 3.6% on Thursday, following the company's first-quarter earnings report on Wednesday evening. Tesla reported better-than-expected earnings, but raised its capital spending guidance to $25 billion from $20 billion. Tesla is aggressively building out its AI business, including AI-trained robo-taxis and robots, but neither of those opportunities is generating significant sales and earnings yet.
Tesla stock is likely to finish the week down. Shares just snapped an eight-week losing streak last week. Including this week, Tesla stock has dropped in 11 of the past 13 weeks. Shares have lost about 16% over that span. Investors have wanted to see faster AI progress to help offset slowing EV sales. U.S. sales of all-electric cars fell 27% year over year in the first quarter, following the September expiration of the federal $7,500 EV purchase tax credit.
As for the upgrade, a change from Sell to Hold doesn't change the Buy-rating ratio. It changes the Sell-rating ratio, though. Overall, 13% of analysts covering Tesla stock rate shares Sell, according to FactSet. The average Sell-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is typically close to 7%. And 44% rate Tesla shares Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio ranges between 55% and 60%.
The average analyst price target for Tesla stock is $406 a share, down about $7 since the first-quarter earnings report.
Coming into Friday trading, Tesla's stock was down about 17% year to date and up about 44% over the past 12 months.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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April 24, 2026 07:38 ET (11:38 GMT)
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