MORGAN STANLEY: Tesla's new SUV is way too expensive - we're cutting our price target on the stock
Alex Davies/Business Insider
After much anticipation, the electric car company unveiled its new SUV last week, and said it already has a backlog of orders out to a year.
In a note on Tuesday, Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas wrote that as great as the car is, the $132,000 price tag - mentioned in media reports and quoted for early adopters - is just too expensive.
Jonas and team lowered their price target on the stock to $450 from $465 with an "overweight" rating.
They wrote (emphasis added):
"We had very high expectations for the technical capabilities of the vehicle and it appears Tesla has met these expectations. However, the Model X price appears to have an as much as $25k higher average transaction price (ATP) than the Model S and easily $10k to $15k higher than we had expected, based on early list pricing/specification options. Even allowing the Model X ATPs to decline over time through the introduction of lower-spec models leaves what we believe to be a higher-priced vehicle than we expected that may struggle to meet the volume expectations of the market and our forecasts."
Jonas said the company would have to lower the Model X price to deliver more than 20,000 cars next year. They also lowered their delivery forecasts on the SUV by between 5,000 and 10,000 units from next year through 2018.
Tesla's stock fell as much as 2% in premarket trading to around $240.50 a share.
It has rallied 10% this year.
- Paytm shares decline 5, hit lower circuit as COO Bhavesh Gupta resigns
- Rupee rises 3 paise to 83.42 against US dollar in early trade
- Kotak Mahindra Bank shares climb nearly 5% after Q4 earnings
- Stock indices surge as Sensex-Nifty start trading week on positive note
- KL Rahul-led LSG concede biggest defeat margin by runs in IPL against KKR