They had a leaked email posted last week that they were pushing for 100K. So 97k is less than was priced into the stock. Not sure why institutional investors don't like the stock and it's so heavily shorted and twitchy. Tesla could use a COO to manage operational expectations and let Elon focus more on engineering in the future. It'll keep his twitter/email free from setting market expectations.
Institutional investors don’t like the stock because it’s a 16 year old company that’s never made a profit a year in existence. It’s pretty easy to see how that could make any money manager run scared
And you only get to play the startup card so long. Tesla is indeed a 16 year old company whose production struggles look even more troubling considering their growth isn't what anyone would really consider hockey stick, and their competitors have none of their scaling issues.
Add in a leader that has shown some stability issues, and its tough to make a case for it.
Personally, I root hard for Tesla the company, want to see them succeed, and after recently buying a house with a parking spot, may buy a Tesla as my next car, but I am not buying shares anytime soon.