After an initial drop, Tesla stock has turned higher, up almost 4% in after-hours trading at $403 a share. Any disappointment with fourth-quarter margins has faded probably because of the outlook for 2025.

That said, Tesla remains one of the most expensive stocks in the market right now. There are very few examples where paying 122 times forward earnings turned out to be a good investment. If Tesla’s automation promises end up taking years and years like FSD, there is going to be a lot of downside risk. It might be time to start taking some profit.

Tesla stock opened down 0.7% at $395.19 ahead of earnings. Coming into this report, Tesla stock has fallen for five of the past six trading days, losing almost 7% over that span. The year-over-year gain is worth more than the market value of General Motors,