According to figures in Bloomberg, about one-third of billionaire Elon Musk’s overall wealth is in shares of the electric vehicle company Tesla, where he serves as CEO — although the third-largest individual shareholder at that company recently called for new leadership amid concerns about his focus on Twitter at Tesla’s expense.
Tesla stock is still falling. On Tuesday, the company’s share price hit the lowest level seen all year, falling dramatically from the highs around $400 a share recorded around the beginning of this calendar year. On January 4, the company saw its 52-week high, with share prices passing $402. On Tuesday, prices sunk to $141.51, the lowest seen in 52 weeks, and expectations for the future of the company’s stock are slowly souring. Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh, prominent enough to be cited in Barron’s, has slashed nearly $50 from his price target for Tesla, although he still rates the company’s stock as worthy of a buy, and the price target at which he settled is still above the prices recently seen in the stock market. He moved his price target from $330 to $285. In general, a price target carries an expectation from the analyst issuing the figure that the company’s stock will reach that valuation in the market in the semi-near future.
Rakesh tied his decision to factors in the vehicle market, although worries about impacts on Tesla from Elon’s moves connected to his Twitter deal are also lingering. He has sold tens of billions of dollars worth of his Tesla shares, including about $3.6 billion that he just recently sold off, which a report in Barron’s indicated was expected to be meant to fund losses at Twitter. Rakesh cited “high interest rates, energy prices and financing rates affecting affordability” in the vehicle market — although he also noted Musk’s sell-offs of Tesla shares. “The sales frustrate investors because they add volatility to Tesla stock and because investors are never sure if they are coming,” as Barron’s explained it.
Although Rakesh’s conclusions are among the more recent, the average price target for Tesla has declined by some $15 a share since Elon began leading Twitter, where he has significantly undercut his credibility with erratic policy moves. Those include temporary suspensions of several high-profile journalists in connection to claims of endangering his family by posting or reporting on location data for his jet — although a Los Angeles police detective said no evidence was uncovered to connect a man involved in a recent confrontation with a member of Elon’s security team at a gas station to a now suspended Twitter account tracking his private jet. Data tracking flights is generally publicly available. Musk also pushes right-wing talking points, like the criminal prosecution of Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health.
