Tesla stock is in the midst of its biggest drop since the company went public in 2010.
Shares of the electric vehicle maker are down 64% from a peak last November, marking the stock’s biggest drop since its market debut, according to data from Compound Capital.
The most recent 407-day selling push has pushed the 60.6% decline from a peak in the 28-day period from February 19, 2020 to March 18, 2020 (chart below), as the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic rattled the Dwarfed Markets Worldwide.
More recently, Tesla stock has fallen 22% in December alone.
The bottom of the Tesla stock price has been broken. (total capital)
The declines for the once-bankable automaker reflect several factors.
First, the risk of operational failures at Tesla has increased as Musk focuses on restructuring Twitter.
“Musk has gone from being a superhero to Tesla stocks to a villain in the eyes of the street as the backlog grows with every tweet,” Wedbush chief executive Dan Ives, who has become increasingly critical of Musk in 2022, told Yahoo Finance.
Concerns also remain about Tesla’s manufacturing issues and pace of sales in China given the country’s uncertain approach to COVID-19 guidelines.
After all, EV competition in the United States has only intensified this year — raising the risk of a growth slowdown for Tesla in 2023 and beyond.
SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk attends a joint press conference with T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert (not pictured) at the SpaceX Starbase in Brownsville, Texas, August 25, 2022. Portal/Adrees Latif
As for the first and most immediate issue, others on the street agree with Ives that the Twitter debacle is the stock’s most pressing concern right now, and likely will remain so well into 2023.
“The Tesla brand has become more polarizing,” Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney said in a note this week. “We believe Tesla’s brand has significant value in relation to the company’s leadership in clean energy and advanced technology. A shift in consumer focus around Tesla back to these core attributes of sustainability and technology will be important, we believe, if Tesla is to deliver and exceed long-term investor expectations for Tesla.”
Brian Sozzi is a freelance writer and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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