Tesla shares edged modesty higher in early Friday trading, having shed more than $740 billion in value since December, as Elon Musk took a break from his duties as White House job-cutter-in-chief to reassure his own employees that their future is far brighter.
In an ‘all hands’ broadcast on his X social media platform, which itself is worth billions less than he bought it for, Musk urged Tesla employees to “hang onto your stock” as he returned to the futuristic themes tied to energy storage, robotics and sell-driving technologies that he’s been touting for years.
“Tesla stock goes up and it goes down,” Musk said. “But actually, it’s still the same company. It’s just people’s perception of the future.”
“Some people, like Cathie Wood at Ark Invest, do see the future,” he added.
It’s also worth nothing that the Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) , Wood’s flagship fund, has lost nearly two-thirds of its value over the past four years, compared to a 34% gain for the Nasdaq benchmark.
And whether its the same company or not depends on who you ask, given that brand reputation can change on a dime and market leaders such as Blockbuster, Bed, Bath & Beyond or even IBM can find themselves either out of business entirely or watching the future evolve from the sidelines.
“Brand is key to Tesla and its a very important to make sure the current brand crisis does not morph into a permanent black eye,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. “We have seen many crucial moments over the last decade in the Tesla story, and this is one of them.”
Elon Musk urged employees to “hang onto your stock” amid the $740 billion in lost value since its mid-December peak.
Investors don’t need to be reminded of that.
Profit margins have narrowed by a third over the past three years, the group reported its first-ever sales decline on record in 2024 and promises from Musk about cybercabs, robots and autonomous software updates have yet to materialize.
And, absent a rally tied to President Donald Trump’s election last November, fueled in part by $250 million in donations from Musk himself, the stock is basically trading at levels last seen in December of 2020.
The Tesla brand, meanwhile, is also under siege; once seen as the poster-child for green-energy automation, Musk’s cars are now under attack, literally, by protestors around the world. European sales are in freefall, competitors in China are leaving it behind and the “Takedown Tesla” movement is tarnishing its imagine by the day.
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“If you read the news, it feels like Armageddon. I can’t walk past a TV without seeing a Tesla on fire,” Musk lamented. “I understand if you don’t want to buy our product, but you don’t have to burn it down, that’s a bit unreasonable.”
He’s absolutely right, of course.
But he also needs to concede that, as one of the President’s most high-profile advisors and the richest man in the world, swinging a chainsaw on stage, using “woodchipper” imagery to describe government job cuts and accusing former military generals of treason is going to elicit an emotional response.
And an economic one.
Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas, a highly-respected Wall Street analyst who has a long track record of touting Tesla’s potential beyond carmaking, lowered his price target on the stock late Thursday and warned the slumping sales would likely continue at least until the end of the year.
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“Conversations with investors and recent survey showed that investors are beginning to contemplate lower year-on-year volume, a marked shift from our Tesla ‘Bull Bear Lunch’ in January where sentiment on full year growth was far more bullish,” Jonas said.
Musk’s return to the forefront of Tesla’s deteriorating narrative, following weeks of residency in Washington and Mar-a-Lago, suggests the billionaire is finally sensing that shift was well.
Tesla (TSLA) shares were marked 0.45% higher in premarket trading to indicate an opening bell price of $237.34 each, a move that would still leave the stock down more than 38% for the year.
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