Tesla shares rose more than 4% to $479 early Thursday after the company reported record quarterly deliveries of just under 500,000 electric vehicles.
The stock traded less than $10 below its record high of $488.54 before quickly reversing, sliding $33 over the next two hours on heavy selling pressure.
Reacting to the production and delivery results, Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch wrote in a new research note that the firm expects Tesla “shares to be flat down on the news.”
Rusch said the firm believes “upside to 3Q estimates was widely expected given the changes in US federal policy,” the analyst wrote in a new research note,
In the note obtained by PriceTarget, the analyst said investors will now turn their attention to the fourth-quarter outlook and how the expiration of the $7,500 EV tax credit may affect demand.
“Investors will be looking for color” in the final quarter of the year, turning to “progress on autonomous driving functionality” and the “timing on ramp of shipments of humanoid robots.”
Oppenheimer reiterated its Perform rating on the stock, as did William Blair analyst Jed Dorsheimer, with the firm’s Market Perform rating on the company’s stock.
Dorsheimer noted that Tesla still faces risks from geopolitics, competition and its CEO Elon Musk.
On Wednesday, the analyst had written that William Blair remains “cautious on margins from a hangover on auto deliveries and lower regulatory credit revenue” for the next quarter.
Tesla‘s highest share value was reached in December 2024. From January to April 2025, the stock has more than halved to $214.25.
Since then, it has rebounded to 2024 levels, gaining over 34% in the past 30 days.
Last week, Musk mocked Tesla bears on X, saying that “a lot of people thought Tesla stock would collapse as the tax credits came to an end this month. Guess not.”
