Tesla Stock Sits Nearly 30% Below Its High and Still Trades at 330 Times Earnings
A drawdown this deep usually leaves a stock cheaper. This one mostly reveals how expensive the shares were at the peak.
Tesla's stock price has fallen nearly 30% from its 52-week high of $498.83, trading at about $355 as of writing. While this makes the shares seem cheaper compared to some other stocks, the company's earnings have actually declined for the past two years. In 2023, Tesla earned $4.30 per share, but that dropped to $2.04 in 2024 and $1.08 in 2025. The latest trailing-12-month earnings figure is still just $1.08 per share.
Operating margins have also been falling fast, from 5.8% in the third quarter of 2025 down to 4.2% this year. Tesla's costs are rising quickly, with operating expenses up 47% year-over-year and gross margins slipping to 16.8%. Management attributes the drop to increased spending on capital expenditures and free cash flow turning negative.
Even if Tesla's price fell to 30 times earnings, its annual earnings would need to be about $11.80 per share to justify that valuation. That's around 11 times current earnings and nearly three times Tesla's best year ever. Reaching that earnings level would require the company to compound profits at roughly 27% annually for a decade.
While Tesla is making progress in certain areas like revenue growth, vehicle deliveries, and services, the company still has a long way to go to justify a valuation multiple typically found in much larger companies. The business is investing heavily in AI, software, and fleet-based operations, but it will be a while before those profits show up. On current earnings, Tesla is still one of the most expensive large-cap stocks in the market.
Written by urgent.news from Yahoo Finance's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
