Wedbush loses some faith in Tesla due to demand cracks, leadership void
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Wedbush Securities lowered its price target on Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) to $175 from $250 as it pointed to demand cracks for Q4 and 2023.
Dan Ives and team believe Tesla's Q4 deliveries tally will fall in the 410K to 415K range, down from a prior for 450K estimate and well below the Street whisper numbers in the ~435K range. Tesla (TSLA) would need to hit 475K deliveries to achieve its broad multi-year target of 50% production growth for the year.
The firm continued to warn on the Twitter distraction with Elon Musk and negative impact on the stock.
"At the same time that Tesla is cutting prices and inventory is starting to build globally in face of a likely global recession, Musk is viewed as asleep at the wheel from a leadership perspective for Tesla at the time investors need a CEO to navigate this Category 5 storm."
Looking ahead, Tesla (TSLA) is still seen having potentially $5 to $6 of earnings power in 2023 and is forecast to still approach +40% delivery growth in a brutal macro environment. That keeps Wedbush in the bull camp with an Outperform rating on the EV stock.
Shares of Tesla (TSLA) rose 1.24% in premarket action on Friday to $127.05 to slightly cut into the 25% six-week slide.
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