By Sam Boughedda
Canaccord analysts cut the firm's price target on Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares to $275 from $304, maintaining an Outperform rating in a note on Thursday.
The analysts were critical in their assessment of the stock's recent performance. It declined further on Thursday, currently down more than 8%, after a more than 60% decline this year. They stated that "in an ironic twist, the company most aggressively pursuing the elimination of fossil fuels has seemingly delivered a lump of coal to investors over the holidays with its recent stock performance — resulting in Exxon Mobile surpassing it in market cap."
"Once again, we find ourselves at a point in time where Tesla sentiment is cosmically bad, the shareholder base is distraught, and Elon Musk is doing Elon Musk things. Some of this is Twitter-related drama, much is not. Tesla's near-term fundamentals remain fairly "meh" — China EV sales data has stayed decidedly mixed, the company has enacted several price cuts/new incentives in multiple markets, and Elon Musk has made multiple statements on Twitter complaining about the economy (particularly the U.S.). 4Q22 deliveries are certainly uncertain," the analysts wrote.
Even so, the analysts said, "we have been here before," and they see this as a moment in time to "properly discern signal from noise."
"While the economic backdrop could remain treacherous, we see multiple green shoots for Tesla over the next 6-12 months that should help the stock, particularly from current levels. Long term, Tesla remains the 'sustainability behemoth' with an improving lead in EVs and participation in several tangential markets, including solar, energy storage, vehicle autonomy, and most recently robotics — businesses that add duration and durability to the Tesla growth story," the analysts added.