Investor's Corner
Tesla price target reductions, Rivian recall take focus as EV stocks slide
Electric vehicle stocks are continuing to slide on Monday as a broader market turnover continues to affect the economy. Tesla faced several price target reductions on Monday morning amidst a lower-than-expected delivery count for Q3, while Rivian shares are down due to a recall that affected over 12,000 vehicles. However, these are not the only two companies facing heat during Monday’s trading session.
Tesla
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares have been beaten and battered over the past month, down over 27 percent. Last week alone accounted for a nearly 12 percent slip in Tesla share price, attributed to a weaker-than-anticipated delivery count when the company announced Q3 numbers earlier this month. Tesla delivered 343,890 vehicles but missed Wall Street expectations. The automaker detailed difficult supply chain conditions for the slide in deliveries, which ultimately ended up occurring in Q4 instead of Q3.
“As our production volumes continue to grow, it is becoming increasingly challenging to secure vehicle transportation capacity and at a reasonable cost during these peak logistics weeks,” Tesla said when it announced the delivery figures on October 2. “In Q3, we began transitioning to a more even regional mix of vehicle builds each week, which led to an increase in cars in transit at the end of the quarter. These cars have been ordered and will be delivered to customers upon arrival at their destination.”
These issues, while contributing to early Q4 deliveries, encouraged Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas to trim his Tesla price target from $383 to $350.
“We believe factors that drove Tesla’s weaker than expected 3Q production and deliveries could continue to present headwinds into 4Q as well as into FY23,” a note to investors said. Morgan Stanley trimmed its 2022 delivery outlook from 1.37 million vehicles to 1.31 million. The firm also revised its 2023 forecast by 200,000 cars from 2 million to 1.8 million.
“We reiterate our OW (overweight) rating on Tesla and continue to position the name as a core holding.”
Tesla also had its price target trimmed by UBS from $367 to $350, as analyst Patrick Hummel maintained a “Buy” rating. RBC Capital Markets analyst Joseph Spak also cut the firm’s price target on Tesla to $340 from $367.
Tesla shares were trading at $222.79 at the time of publish.
Rivian
Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) saw more than a 10.5 percent dip in Monday trading following a recall of more than 12,000 vehicles on Friday.
Rivian announced last week that it was issuing a recall on 12,212 R1T, R1S, and EDV (Electric Delivery Van) units due to a “loose steering knuckle fastener.” The NHTSA stated, “The fastener connecting the front upper control arm and steering knuckle may have been improperly tightened,” which may cause the fastener to separate and cause a loss of vehicle control.
“This is a black eye for Rivian now just starting to hit its stride on reaching its 25k production target,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said. “A modest setback.”
Rivian shares were trading at $30.63 at the time of publish.
Other EV Stocks: A rough day on Wall Street
Lucid (NASDAQ: LCID), Nio (NYSE: NIO), Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI), and Ford (NYSE: F) were all down at least 3 percent at 11:20 A.M. on the East Coast.
Ford’s 7.2 percent drop on Monday was the most notable. Wall Street continues skepticism on whether legacy automakers like Ford and GM can remain afloat among rising competition and a robust lineup of carmakers that show more promise in the EV sector. Analysts at UBS downgraded Ford and lowered its price target to $10 from $13. The Motley Fool stated in its synopsis of Ford’s struggles that the company’s key metrics for September were the weakest among U.S. automakers, making it more vulnerable during a recession than its peers.
Price increases on Ford’s F-150 Lightning have indicated the company is making the right moves to keep margins in the right place. Additionally, the company is feeling healthy demand from consumers as it recently suspended accepting orders on the Mustang Mach-E’s base trim, citing high demand and a long order backlog.
Ford stock was trading at $11.32 at the time of publish.
Disclosure: Joey Klender owns Tesla stock, but no shares of any other automaker mentioned in this article.
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Elon Musk
Tesla stock gets latest synopsis from Jim Cramer: ‘It’s actually a robotics company’
“Turns out it’s actually a robotics and Cybercab company, and I want to buy, buy, buy. Yes, Tesla’s the paper that turned into scissors in one session,” Cramer said.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) got its latest synopsis from Wall Street analyst Jim Cramer, who finally realized something that many fans of the company have known all along: it’s not a car company. Instead, it’s a robotics company.
In a recent note that was released after Tesla reported Earnings in late January, Cramer seemed to recognize that the underwhelming financials and overall performance of the automotive division were not representative of the current state of affairs.
Instead, we’re seeing a company transition itself away from its early identity, essentially evolving like a caterpillar into a butterfly.
The narrative of the Earnings Call was simple: We’re not a car company, at least not from a birds-eye view. We’re an AI and Robotics company, and we are transitioning to this quicker than most people realize.
Tesla stock gets another analysis from Jim Cramer, and investors will like it
Tesla’s Q4 Earnings Call featured plenty of analysis from CEO Elon Musk and others, and some of the more minor details of the call were even indicative of a company that is moving toward AI instead of its cars. For example, the Model S and Model X will be no more after Q2, as Musk said that they serve relatively no purpose for the future.
Instead, Tesla is shifting its focus to the vehicles catered for autonomy and its Robotaxi and self-driving efforts.
Cramer recognizes this:
“…we got results from Tesla, which actually beat numbers, but nobody cares about the numbers here, as electric vehicles are the past. And according to CEO Elon Musk, the future of this company comes down to Cybercabs and humanoid robots. Stock fell more than 3% the next day. That may be because their capital expenditures budget was higher than expected, or maybe people wanted more details from the new businesses. At this point, I think Musk acolytes might be more excited about SpaceX, which is planning to come public later this year.”
He continued, highlighting the company’s true transition away from vehicles to its Cybercab, Optimus, and AI ambitions:
“I know it’s hard to believe how quickly this market can change its attitude. Last night, I heard a disastrous car company speak. Turns out it’s actually a robotics and Cybercab company, and I want to buy, buy, buy. Yes, Tesla’s the paper that turned into scissors in one session. I didn’t like it as a car company. Boy, I love it as a Cybercab and humanoid robot juggernaut. Call me a buyer and give me five robots while I’m at it.”
Cramer’s narrative seems to fit that of the most bullish Tesla investors. Anyone who is labeled a “permabull” has been echoing a similar sentiment over the past several years: Tesla is not a car company any longer.
Instead, the true focus is on the future and the potential that AI and Robotics bring to the company. It is truly difficult to put Tesla shares in the same group as companies like Ford, General Motors, and others.
Tesla shares are down less than half a percent at the time of publishing, trading at $423.69.
Elon Musk
Tesla to a $100T market cap? Elon Musk’s response may shock you
There are a lot of Tesla bulls out there who have astronomical expectations for the company, especially as its arm of reach has gone well past automotive and energy and entered artificial intelligence and robotics.
However, some of the most bullish Tesla investors believe the company could become worth $100 trillion, and CEO Elon Musk does not believe that number is completely out of the question, even if it sounds almost ridiculous.
To put that number into perspective, the top ten most valuable companies in the world — NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, TSMC, Meta, Saudi Aramco, Broadcom, and Tesla — are worth roughly $26 trillion.
Will Tesla join the fold? Predicting a triple merger with SpaceX and xAI
Cathie Wood of ARK Invest believes the number is reasonable considering Tesla’s long-reaching industry ambitions:
“…in the world of AI, what do you have to have to win? You have to have proprietary data, and think about all the proprietary data he has, different kinds of proprietary data. Tesla, the language of the road; Neuralink, multiomics data; nobody else has that data. X, nobody else has that data either. I could see $100 trillion. I think it’s going to happen because of convergence. I think Tesla is the leading candidate [for $100 trillion] for the reason I just said.”
Musk said late last year that all of his companies seem to be “heading toward convergence,” and it’s started to come to fruition. Tesla invested in xAI, as revealed in its Q4 Earnings Shareholder Deck, and SpaceX recently acquired xAI, marking the first step in the potential for a massive umbrella of companies under Musk’s watch.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
Now that it is happening, it seems Musk is even more enthusiastic about a massive valuation that would swell to nearly four-times the value of the top ten most valuable companies in the world currently, as he said on X, the idea of a $100 trillion valuation is “not impossible.”
It’s not impossible
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2026
Tesla is not just a car company. With its many projects, including the launch of Robotaxi, the progress of the Optimus robot, and its AI ambitions, it has the potential to continue gaining value at an accelerating rate.
Musk’s comments show his confidence in Tesla’s numerous projects, especially as some begin to mature and some head toward their initial stages.
Elon Musk
Tesla director pay lawsuit sees lawyer fees slashed by $100 million
The ruling leaves the case’s underlying settlement intact while significantly reducing what the plaintiffs’ attorneys will receive.
The Delaware Supreme Court has cut more than $100 million from a legal fee award tied to a shareholder lawsuit challenging compensation paid to Tesla directors between 2017 and 2020.
The ruling leaves the case’s underlying settlement intact while significantly reducing what the plaintiffs’ attorneys will receive.
Delaware Supreme Court trims legal fees
As noted in a Bloomberg Law report, the case targeted pay granted to Tesla directors, including CEO Elon Musk, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Kimbal Musk, and Rupert Murdoch. The Delaware Chancery Court had awarded $176 million to the plaintiffs. Tesla’s board must also return stock options and forego years worth of pay.
As per Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz Jr. in an opinion for the Delaware Supreme Court’s full five-member panel, however, the decision of the Delaware Chancery Court to award $176 million to a pension fund’s law firm “erred by including in its financial benefit analysis the intrinsic value” of options being returned by Tesla’s board.
The justices then reduced the fee award from $176 million to $70.9 million. “As we measure it, $71 million reflects a reasonable fee for counsel’s efforts and does not result in a windfall,” Chief Justice Seitz wrote.
Other settlement terms still intact
The Supreme Court upheld the settlement itself, which requires Tesla’s board to return stock and options valued at up to $735 million and to forgo three years of additional compensation worth about $184 million.
Tesla argued during oral arguments that a fee award closer to $70 million would be appropriate. Interestingly enough, back in October, Justice Karen L. Valihura noted that the $176 award was $60 million more than the Delaware judiciary’s budget from the previous year. This was quite interesting as the case was “settled midstream.”
The lawsuit was brought by a pension fund on behalf of Tesla shareholders and focused exclusively on director pay during the 2017–2020 period. The case is separate from other high-profile compensation disputes involving Elon Musk.