Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares have lost nearly 11% in two days, fueled by anxieties around potentially missing first-quarter delivery targets and the stock’s six-month-long lackluster performance.
Late Tuesday, Tesla bull and Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives offered his perspective on the company’s weakness and future prospects.
Handholding Needed: Tesla’s growth story isn’t dead and it is just going through “a brutal transition,” said Ives in a CNBC interview. The biggest issue Tesla is facing currently is that its conference calls have almost been like “Saturday Night Live comedy shows,” the analyst said.
“Without a CFO, Zach, since he left in August, every time you want to get guidance, you want communication, you don’t get it. So the problem now is that I think about 80% of the sell-off has been communication, 20% is the actual fundamentals.”
There is risk-off sentiment toward Tesla in this market, the analyst said, adding that he doesn’t believe the stock will sit around current levels six to twelve months from now. He based his optimism on the sub-$30,000 EVs and full self-driving software.
“Look, I think we are definitely right now going through a very, very difficult period as a Tesla holder, I mean it’s so much easier to just own the godfather of AI Jensen’s Nvidia, Microsoft…Amazon a handful of others,” the analyst said.
Ives also said giving clear guidance is the key. “Give some goalpost,” he said. “But the problem is that by no goalpost, no communication, bad news in terms….of the China numbers, investors could put on the blindfold, play darts.”
This, the analyst said wasn’t good for the stock.
Although no one could argue with Tesla’s success, this is a time investors need to be handheld, the analyst said. They might want to know what does AI look like on the other side, the Delaware situation, the 25% ownership, you know in terms of some of the noise around there,” he said.
See Also: Everything You Need To Know About Tesla Stock
EV Market Weakness: Ives conceded that the EV market has been seeing dark days globally. He pointed to the slowdown in the EV plans of Ford and General Motors as they continue to toy with hybrids. “So, now do we go to 60% penetration? It’s probably closer to 30%, but still that’s a massive growth opportunity over the coming years,” he said.
It has been a very difficult time for pureplay EV manufacturers and their investors, Ives said. The market, according to the analyst, is bifurcated. “Do you wanna be owning the minivan right lane… going 40 miles an hour or the Bugatti on the left lane that you will pay up for, which is essentially AI,” he said.
Trump Presidency: Ives also shed light on what a second term for Donald Trump would mean for the EV industry. He sees Tesla benefiting if Trump won but he also cautioned that escalation of tensions with China – one of Tesla’s key markets would be more negative for the Elon Musk-led company.
Referring to the China market, the analyst said, “Essentially it went from a Cinderella story to a hard show but it’s probably somewhere in between, I do believe is the way to play it, it’s BYD and Tesla in terms of who’s gonna emerge the winner.”
Tesla ended Tuesday’s session down 3.93% at $180.74, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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