Yahoo Finance Tesla stock drops after Goldman Sachs downgrade
Goldman's move follows downgrades by Barclays and Morgan Stanley.
Tesla (TSLA) stock was under pressure on Monday after receiving another downgrade from a major Wall Street bank, the latest in a trend that is becoming harder to ignore for investors.
Late Sunday, Goldman analyst Mark Delaney took Tesla shares down a peg, downgrading the stock to Neutral from Buy, marking at least the third downgrade of the stock after last week saw analysts at Barclays and Morgan Stanley sour on the name.
In an unusual move, however, Delaney raised his price target on the stock to $248 from $185 while recommending investors pare back exposure to Tesla after more than doubling this year.
On Monday, Tesla stock was down as much as 4.5% in afternoon trade.
For Delaney, the downgrade is pretty much a valuation call.
"While the primary reason for the change in our view is that we think the market is now giving the stock more credit for its longer-term opportunities, we are also cognizant of the difficult pricing environment for new vehicles that we think will continue to weigh on Tesla's automotive non-GAAP gross margin this year," Delaney wrote.
Delaney and the Goldman team cite a combination of factors explaining the recent run-up, a surge the firm said “exceeded our expectation” in terms of magnitude.
Goldman sees solid monthly sales reports for April and May, less discounting than investors expected, all versions of the Model 3 gaining the full EV tax credit, charging deals using Tesla's NACS standard, and recent focus on companies benefiting from AI all serving as drivers behind the move.
The big picture story from Goldman, however, remains that the bank still sees Tesla as the overall leader in EVs with a stock price now in lock step with that thesis.
"Overall we believe our view that Tesla is well positioned for long-term growth, given its leading position in the EV and clean energy markets (which we attribute in part to its ability to offer full solutions including charging, storage, software/FSD and services with a direct sales model), is now better reflected in the stock," Delaney wrote.
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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