TSLA Stock Is Down Over 11% In 2026 So Far: Gary Black Suggests Elon Musk Should Do This To Reverse The Slide

Investor Gary Black of the Future Fund LLC has outlined four ways through which Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) can recover from its recent stock decline.

Check out the current price of TSLA here.

Tesla Lagging Behind?

In a post on the social media platform X on Thursday, the investor shared that Tesla was underperforming in 2026 despite positive developments with its self-driving exploits. Tesla was underperforming the Nasdaq 100, which slid 2% compared to Tesla's 12% decline this year so far, according to Black.

"The bulls' narrative that only TSLA can solve for generalized unsupervised autonomy has fallen apart," he said, adding that competitors like Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Waymo, Baidu Inc.-backed (NASDAQ:BIDU) Apollo Go, and others had marked significant progress in the AV sector.

He also outlined that Nvidia Corp.'s (NASDAQ:NVDA) new Alpamayo technology helps OEMs scale autonomous pursuits, "essentially democratizing unsupervised autonomy," he said.

How Can Tesla Bounce Back?

To help the automaker recover, the investor outlined some ways that could be beneficial for Tesla. He shared that Tesla needed a "Broad brand awareness campaign," which would help consumers know that Tesla has "the best autonomous driving product on the market," reiterating his earlier comments about Tesla's marketing practices.

He then outlined that Tesla should "remove safety monitors from robotaxis," as there was still uncertainty around the EV giant having achieved unsupervised self-driving. Removing safety monitors could put skepticism to rest, he said.

Black then shared that another way for Tesla to recover its stock performance is to launch another pickup truck that looks more in line with a conventional pickup truck design instead of the current Cybertruck.

"Even a 10% share of the pickup segment would translate to $1.20/share of earnings before cannibalization of Model Y," he said, adding that it would illustrate a 40% increase in 2027 earnings. "At a 140x 2027 P/E that is an incremental $170/share in valuation," Black said.

However, the investor outlined that another way for Tesla to recover its losses could be tied to Elon Musk himself, who can purchase additional shares of the automaker. "There is nothing that speaks confidence more than a CEO who buys his/her own stock," he said.

Benzinga Edge Rankings show that Tesla scores well on the Momentum metric and offers a favorable price trend in the Long Term.

Price Action: TSLA slid 2.17% to $397.21 at market close on Thursday, sliding 2.09% further to $388.90 during the after-hours session. TSLA’s share has declined 11.68% year-to-date and is down by 4.65% in the last five sessions.

Check out more of Benzinga's Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

Photo courtesy: Shutterstock