One of Tesla’s most optimistic analysts has cut off his target price for 43%shares, citing a brand crisis created by CEO, Elon Musk, and US President Donald Trump’s commercial policies.
“Tesla has essentially become a political symbol globally,” wrote Daniel Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst, who has classified the automaker’s shares for purchase in the last four years in a customer report on Sunday (6). “It’s time for Musk to introduce herself and be a leader in this moment of uncertainty,” he said.
Ives reduced the target price of Tesla shares from $ 550 to $ 315, which was the second largest among the 72 analysts monitored by Bloomberg.
Negative reaction
Ives’s biggest concern is Tesla’s potential to be caught in a negative reaction against US president’s tariff policies in China, where Tesla generated more than a fifth of her revenue last year.
President Xi Jinping’s government plans to impose a 34% tariff on all US imports from April 10, equaling the level of Trump’s so -called reciprocal tariffs on Chinese products.
“This will lead Chinese consumers to buy national products such as Byd, Nio, Xpeng and others,” Ives said in his statement. “Now we estimate that Tesla has lost/destroyed at least 10% of its future customer base based on brand problems created by itself, and this can be a conservative estimate.”
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Tesla’s shares fell 15% in the two days after Trump announced that it would apply a rate of at least 10% on imports from all countries to the US, with even higher rates over 60 nations to combat commercial imbalances.