Tesla is a battleground stock. Here's where major Wall Street analysts stand right now.

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Tesla is a battleground stock. Here's where major Wall Street analysts stand right now.

elon musk

Rebecca Cook / Reuters

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  • Tesla analysts at UBS and Morgan Stanley slashed their price targets this week.
  • Shares have tumbled 18% this year, and continue to starkly divide Wall Street.
  • Markets Insider compiled a list of some of the most widely followed Tesla analysts and their views on the electric-car maker.
  • Watch Tesla trade live.

Tesla has long been the quintessential battleground stock, a polarizing name among analysts and investors alike. It's a pioneer in the electric-vehicle space, led by a controversial CEO who is mired in a legal battle and garners as much love as he does ire.

And its volatile stock price reflects that.

Tesla has fallen 18% this year, to $273.02 a share, closing modestly lower on Monday after analysts at Morgan Stanley and UBS cut their price targets. In January, shares soared as high as $351.50 before plunging after the company said it would lay off around 7% of its workforce.

Put another way, shares are off about 27% from their December peak following the "largest q/q sales drop-off ever reported, announced price cuts, & an under-whelming reaction to the Model Y reveal," UBS analyst Colin Langan told clients on Monday.

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"Given the volatility, we are vigilant for the next positive catalyst; however we don't see one near term," Langan added, days after Tesla's first-quarter delivery results fell short of expectations.

Morgan Stanley, for its part, cut its price target for the third time in as many months.

"The fundamental narrative around Tesla appears more clouded than we have seen in several years," analyst Adam Jonas wrote. "Signs of weakening demand have raised long-standing questions about the company's ability to fund itself as an independent company."

But those are just two outlooks. Here's where some of the other widely followed Tesla analysts stand on the stock, complete with their price targets, investment ratings, and some notable quotes from their latest investor notes.

Get the latest Tesla stock price here.

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Adam Jonas

Adam Jonas

Firm: Morgan Stanley

Price target: $240

Rating: Equal-weight

"The fundamental narrative around Tesla appears more clouded than we have seen in several years. Signs of weakening demand have raised long-standing questions about the company’s ability to fund itself as an independent company," Jonas said on Monday.

Ryan Brinkman

Ryan Brinkman

Firm: JPMorgan

Price target: $200

Rating: Underweight

"The now clear incongruence of CEO outlook statements with official company guidance may hurt the perception of management commentary, eroding investor confidence and potentially placing additional pressures on the shares," Brinkman said in report dated April 4.

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Itay Michaeli

Itay Michaeli

Firm: Citi

Price target: $273

Rating: Sell/High Risk

"Though Tesla bulls might look past the Q1 Model 3 miss (also given recent intro of $35k version), the S/X numbers will likely spark some legitimate demand & company margin concerns, particularly given the risk for some incremental cannibalization from the recently introduced Model Y," Michaeli wrote in a note to clients on April 4.

Ben Kallo

Ben Kallo

Firm: Baird

Price target: $465

Rating: Outperform

"The Model S and Model X are luxury electric vehicles with significantly more range than many
of their competitors," Kallo wrote in a note to clients last week.

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David Tamberrino

David Tamberrino

Firm: Goldman Sachs

Price target: $210

Rating: Sell

"While we believe TSLA has developed a lead relative to OEM peers with respect to electric vehicle technology, we believe its operational execution has been more challenged and see its competitive lead waning as other companies launch more models and EV incentives phase out for TSLA ahead of that competition," Tamberrino wrote in a note dated April 4.

Joseph Spak

Joseph Spak

Firm: RBC Capital Markets

Price target: $210

Rating: Underperform

"Tesla reported total 1Q19 deliveries of 63k, 31% below 4Q18 levels and versus RBC/FactSet consensus of 71.7k/76k," Spak wrote in a note to clients last week. "We believe the results are disappointing across the board and estimate that this could potentially translate into a ~$1bn+ revenue miss."

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Philippe Houchois

Philippe Houchois

Firm: Jefferies

Price target: $450

Rating: Buy

"Tesla reported 63k vehicles delivered and 77.1k produced, 12% and 8% below JEFe respectively," he wrote in a note last week. "The miss is on S/X, which disproportionately hurt profitability."

Colin Langan

Colin Langan

Firm: UBS

Price target: $200

Rating: Sell

"Given the volatility, we are vigilant for the next positive catalyst; however we don't see one near term," he told clients on Monday. "While growth may reaccelerate in Q2, we forecast it will still fall short of guidance & consensus."

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Colin Rusch

Colin Rusch

Firm: Oppenheimer

Price target: $437

Rating: Outperform

"We anticipate bulls will look through 1Q19 weak deliveries, pointing to weak global auto demand and a reiteration of FY19 guidance," Rusch told clients last week. "We maintain our positive bias, waiting for full financials when the company reports later this month."

Dan Ives

Dan Ives

Firm: Wedbush

Price target: $365

Rating: Outperform

"We maintain our OUTPERFORM rating as we still firmly believe in our long term Tesla demand EV thesis despite this near-term turbulence, however we are lowering our price target from $390 to $365 to reflect lower deliveries and a higher chance of capital raise now on the horizon," he told clients last week.

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