Concerns that Elon Musk might further dilute his Tesla holdings to fund the Twitter acquisition have put the TSLA stock under a free fall.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock continues to be under a free fall and tanked another 8% on Tuesday, December 20, ending the trading at $137.80. Since Elon Musk‘s takeover of Twitter, Tesla stock has corrected by more than 40%.
There has been a growing concern within the investor community about Musk’s increasing focus on his latest acquisition of Twitter. Thus, citing Elon Musk’s Twitter distraction, a string of brokerages have cut their price targets for the TSLA stock.
On Tuesday, the Tesla (TSLA) stock touched a new two-year low. The Tesla stock price is already down by more than 65% since the beginning of 2022. Many analysts believe that Musk might be diluting his stake to fund his Twitter acquisition. Well, this has led to growing concerns among investors who believe that Musk’s antics are hurting the EV company. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Wells Fargo auto analyst Colin Langan said:
“It’s very concerning about the weakness that we’re seeing in China. We are seeing incentives go up, and sales actually are not increasing there. And [a] driving concern is: Are we going to start seeing that in the U.S. and Europe? Is that just sort of the early days of softening demand? And I think that is really more of the large institutional investors’ top concern.”
For now, Lagan has given an equal weight rating for the TSLA stock. He also acknowledged that investors need to carefully observe the situation at Twitter. “Everyone has seen that Elon could multitask, so that is not something traditional institutional investors are that concerned about. But I do think there is rising concern about potential brand damage from some of the headlines that are coming around the Twitter situation,” Langan added.
Analysts Cut Price Targets for Tesla Stock amid Musk’s Focus on Twitter
A number of market analysts have recently cut the price targets for the TSLA stock. Evercore ISI has slashed the price of TSLA stock to $200 from $300 amid fear of the impact on the Tesla brand. Similarly, Daiwa Capital Markets has also cut its price target to $177 from $240, citing a “higher risk profile from the Twitter distraction”.
Also, the weakening demand in China, Tesla’s one of the biggest markets, is also the reason behind the TSLA stock coming under pressure. For 2023, Daiwa has lowered the company’s delivery targets by 5% along with an 8% reduction in revenue per unit. As per Elon Musk, Tesla was targeting a 50% growth in delivery volumes. However, the EV maker said that they might miss the target this year citing logistics issue.
Amid the recent chaos, Elon Musk conducted a Twitter poll asking his followers whether he should step down as Twitter CEO. 57% of the votes said Yes. Responding to this Musk wrote:
“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams”.
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Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and holds a good flair in understanding financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draw his attention towards the new emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is continuously in a learning process and keeps himself motivated by sharing his acquired knowledge. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and sometimes explore his culinary skills.
