New school vs old school analysts on Tesla: 40 analysts, three generations

New school vs old school analysts is an argument you can test one stock at a time, and this series starts with Tesla. Forty analysts with a live AnaChart page and at least three Tesla targets have set one since October 2024.

Seventeen of them have a first recorded target before 2014. Five have a first recorded target in October 2021 or later. Data runs through 1 October 2026.

We put their Tesla records side by side: 2,047 price targets in all, how many the stock went on to reach, how long that took, and where each group has set its targets over the last two years.

This is the first post in a series that runs the same comparison on one stock at a time.

Three generations on one stock

An analyst’s generation here comes from the date of their first recorded price target, on any stock. New school means October 2021 or later, so five years of published targets at most.

Old school means before 2014. Everyone in between is the middle generation, which on Tesla turns out to be the biggest group, with 18 analysts.

To make the list, an analyst needed at least three Tesla price targets in our records, at least one of them since 1 October 2024, and a live analyst page on AnaChart.

That leaves 5 new school analysts, 18 in the middle and 17 old school. The full lists, with every analyst’s Tesla record, are further down.

The groups aren’t the same size. The old school has published 1,422 of the 2,047 Tesla targets. Adam Jonas at Morgan Stanley has 263 on his own and Daniel Ives at Wedbush has 234, which is more than the whole new school put together.

Where each group sets its Tesla targets now

Start with the present. To see where each group stands today, we took every Tesla price target analysts set between 1 October 2024 and 1 October 2026 and compared it with Tesla’s closing price on the day it was published.

The middle generation is the group most likely to set a target below the share price. Of its 118 Tesla targets in the two years, 55.9% were below the price on the day, and the median target sat 3.0% under it.

The old school’s 208 targets sat a median 17.9% above the price, with 27.4% below it and 30.8% at least 30% above. The new school’s 77 targets sat a median 9.0% above, with 33.8% below.

The middle generation also issued the highest share of Sell ratings. In the two years the old school issued 228 Tesla ratings: 151 Buy, 59 Hold and 18 Sell.

The middle generation issued 140: 46 Buy, 55 Hold and 39 Sell. The new school issued 83: 51 Buy, 21 Hold and 11 Sell, and Jewsikow accounts for 10 of the 11 Sells.

Each group holds both high and low latest targets. In the old school, Daniel Ives has $600 with a Buy and Colin Langan at Wells Fargo has $130 with a Sell, and Toni Sacconaghi at Bernstein had $120 when he last published, in December 2024.

In the new school, Sheppard’s latest is $485 and Jewsikow’s $175.

How many Tesla targets were reached

A target counts as reached when Tesla’s share price touched it after the analyst published it. Of the old school’s 1,422 Tesla targets, the stock reached 1,135, or 79.8%.

The middle generation’s figure is 406 of 500, or 81.2%. The new school’s is 91 of 125, or 72.8%.

One analyst pulls the new school figure down. Ronald Jewsikow at Guggenheim has set 20 Tesla targets, every one with a Sell rating and below the share price on the day, and Tesla reached none of them.

Take him out and the other four new school analysts reached 91 of 105, or 86.7%.

The old school has the same kind of spread inside it. Colin Rusch at Oppenheimer has 44 of 45 Tesla targets reached and Jed Dorsheimer at Canaccord 32 of 33.

Jeffrey Osborne at TD Cowen has 19 of 43, and Ryan Brinkman at JPMorgan 37 of 63. Our post on why the analyst’s name matters looks at this across every stock.

Key takeaway: older records have had more time, so compare reach rates with that in mind.

How long reached Tesla targets took

For the targets Tesla did reach, the old school waited 248 days on average. The middle generation waited 188 days, while the new school waited 73. Targets the stock hasn’t reached aren’t in these averages.

Some of that gap is arithmetic. A new school analyst has been covering Tesla for five years at the most, so their record can’t hold a target that took more than five years to reach, and an old school record can.

Individual records differ as well: Andres Sheppard at Cantor Fitzgerald averages 72 days across 44 reached targets and George Gianarikas at Canaccord 80 days across 38. Both have a first recorded price target in November 2021.

A fair like-for-like test would compare the groups over the same years, and these records can’t do that cleanly. Each group’s averages cover different stretches of Tesla’s history, so the day counts describe the records as they stand rather than which generation is faster.

Across all 40 analysts, the average reached Tesla target took 223 days. Our wider study of how accurate analyst price targets are covers the same measure across every stock we track.

The new school on Tesla

Five analysts, and two of them set 92 of the group’s 125 Tesla targets. Sheppard has set 49, and his 39 Tesla calls in the last two years are the second highest count of any analyst after Ives, who has 47.

Gianarikas has set 43. Andrew Percoco at Morgan Stanley and Dmitriy Pozdnyakov at Freedom Capital Markets have 8 and 5. Pozdnyakov’s first recorded target came in March 2025, which makes him the newest analyst on this list.

Every new school analyst’s Tesla record

On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Performance score: for each target, 1,000 × the percentage move from the price at issue to the target ÷ the days it took to reach it, with unreached targets scoring 0, averaged across the analyst’s Tesla targets. Average days counts reached targets only. Latest rating and target are the most recent on Tesla in our records through 1 October 2026, with the month they were set.

The middle generation

Eighteen analysts, most with a first recorded target between 2015 and 2017. Dan Levy at Barclays and Joseph Spak at UBS have 80 Tesla targets each.

Philippe Houchois at Jefferies has 64 of 68 reached, and William Stein at Truist 34 of 38 at an average of 98 days.

Gordon Johnson at GLJ Research has 8 Tesla targets on record and Tesla reached none of them, and Michael Tyndall at HSBC 2 of 12. Both also rate it a Sell today. Michael “Mickey” Legg appears with his Tesla record from Ladenburg and Benchmark combined.

Every middle generation analyst’s Tesla record

The old school

Seventeen analysts, with first recorded targets going back to John Murphy at BofA in 2005. This group has the longest Tesla records: Jonas, Ives and Ben Kallo at Baird have 671 targets between them, and Kallo’s 164 reached out of 174 is 94.3%.

The highest performance score on Tesla in any group belongs to Pierre Ferragu at New Street Research, at 14.14, from 17 reached out of 19. Mark Delaney at Goldman Sachs has 67 of 78 reached at an average of 113 days.

Every old school analyst’s Tesla record

Reading a Tesla target with this in mind

On this stock the old school includes the highest current target and the lowest, and the new school includes both Sheppard, who has 44 of 49 reached, and Jewsikow, who has none of 20.

When a new Tesla target comes out, there are two things to check. First, how many of that analyst’s earlier Tesla targets the stock reached and how long that took, which is on every analyst page.

Second, where the target sits against the price compared with the analyst’s own history. A target above the price from an analyst whose last two years of Tesla targets sat below it is a change in that analyst’s view.

For the population view across every stock, see our newer vs veteran analysts speed study and the analyst turnover study.

How the series works

Who is included. Analysts with a live AnaChart page, at least three price targets on the stock in our records, and at least one target on the stock since 1 October 2024.

We treat spelling variants of one name as one person, and where one analyst appears under two firms we combine the records.

Generations. Set by the analyst’s first recorded price target on any stock in AnaChart’s records: new school from 1 October 2021, old school before 1 January 2014, middle generation in between.

Our records get dense from 2013, so a first recorded target before 2014 marks a long career but doesn’t say how long.

Reached targets and days. From each analyst’s record on the stock, all years. A target counts as reached on the first day the share price touches it after publication. For a target set below the price, that means the price falling to it.

Prices are split-adjusted, so targets set before Tesla’s 2020 and 2022 stock splits are compared on the same basis. Average days counts reached targets only and uses the number of reached targets as the weight.

Performance score. For each target, 1,000 × (target − price at issue) ÷ (price at issue × days to reach it), with the sign flipped for targets below the price.

Unreached targets score 0, and the analyst’s score on the stock is the simple average across their targets.

Where targets sit now. Every price target on the stock from 1 October 2024 to 1 October 2026, divided by the closing price on the day the analyst published it. We simplify ratings to Buy, Hold and Sell.

Data. AnaChart price target records through 1 October 2026, with analyst records read from live AnaChart pages on 4 October 2026.

Limits. Five new school analysts is a small group, and one of them shapes the group figure. There’s no same-window comparison between the generations, because their records cover different years. This post takes no view on Tesla shares.

Frequently asked questions

Which Tesla analysts have the most price targets reached?

Among analysts with at least 30 Tesla targets, Colin Rusch of Oppenheimer has 44 of 45 reached (97.8%), Jed Dorsheimer of Canaccord 32 of 33 (97.0%) and Ben Kallo of Baird 164 of 174 (94.3%).

Philippe Houchois of Jefferies has 64 of 68 (94.1%). By count, Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley has the most, 233 reached out of 263.

Are newer analysts more bullish on Tesla than veterans?

Less than the old school and more than the middle generation. From October 2024 to October 2026 the median Tesla target from new school analysts sat 9.0% above the share price on the day, against 17.9% for the old school and 3.0% below the price for the middle generation.

Andres Sheppard of Cantor Fitzgerald, the most active new school analyst, rates Tesla a Buy with a $485 target, and Ronald Jewsikow of Guggenheim rates it a Sell at $175.

How long does it take for a Tesla price target to be reached?

Counting reached targets only, the 1,632 reached Tesla targets from 40 analysts took 223 days on average.

Old school analysts averaged 248 days, the middle generation 188 and the new school 73. Andres Sheppard averages 72 days across 44 reached targets and Adam Jonas 297 days across 233.

Who is the newest analyst covering Tesla?

Dmitriy Pozdnyakov of Freedom Capital Markets, whose first recorded price target came in March 2025. He has set 5 Tesla targets, and Tesla reached 4 of them after 87 days on average, and his latest is a Hold with a $420 target.