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Tesla (TSLA) stock is off to a poor start this week as the trade war continues to wreak havoc on the global economy.
While many tech stocks are struggling right now, the outlook appears particularly grim for the former electric vehicle (EV) leader. CEO Elon Musk has allowed Tesla’s investors to pay the price for his time with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has severely compromised TSLA stock.
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Even before the most recent round of tariffs started fueling speculation of a recession, TSLA stock had been highly volatile and unable to sustain any real momentum. Now, the company faces a highly uncertain future as consumer sentiment towards it continues to trend downward.
It isn’t just investors who are losing faith in Tesla and Musk, though. Wall Street sentiment is shifting and that includes one of the industry’s biggest TSLA stock bulls.
An analyst who loves Tesla sounds alarm on Musk and tariffs
Anyone who follows Tesla knows that Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities has been highly bullish on the stock for years. Even as the stock trended downward over the past few months, he maintained a highly bullish price target of $550 and maintained his optimism that TSLA would rebound.
On April 6, that finally changed when Ives lowered his Tesla price target. While he’s still bullish, his new target is $315 per share, a significant decrease from $550. Ives had previously admitted that he believed the trade war would significantly impact entire industries and produce no winners but did not lower his price target on Tesla.
Related: Key Tesla investor makes blunt prediction for the company's future
In a note published on April 6, Ives explained why he blames Musk for creating a brand crisis for Tesla that is severely compromising its growth prospects. He also sees this crisis overshadowing Tesla’s other advancements, which should be positive catalysts.
“The future is so bright for Tesla with Austin's unsupervised FSD, lower-cost vehicles, and of course the autonomous and robotics future,” he states....:but this is a full blown crisis Tesla is navigating now (along with these tariffs), and it is time for Musk to step up, read the room, and be a leader in this time of uncertainty.”
Ives also highlights the impact of what he describes as an “economic tariff Armageddon.” While he notes that Tesla has lower exposure to tariffs than other automakers such as Ford, (F) General Motors (GM) or Stellantis, (STLA) , he still sees them negatively impacting TSLA stock.