Tesla stock fell again Monday as it tries to snap an ignominiousstreakthis week.
Now, it has some work to do to avoid a ninth consecutive weekly loss.
Shares of the electric-vehicle maker lost 4.8% on Monday, closing at $238.01, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6% and 0.9%, respectively.
Not helping on Monday was a price-target cut from Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh. He took his stock target to $430 from $515. “We believe Tesla’s sales woes are the result of a deterioration in geopolitics, brand perception (U.S./EU), share loss due to stronger competition (China), and softer-than-expected demand for the Model Y refresh,” wrote the analyst. “We continue to see TSLA as a leader in the EV [and self-driving] markets.”
Rakesh kept his Buy rating on Tesla stock.
Coming into Monday, Tesla stock dropped for eight consecutive weeks—losing 41% over that span. It’s the worst weekly losing streak for the stock ever.
Tesla shares have had some epic losing—and winning—streaks.
Shares dropped for five consecutive weeks in 2024, and six weeks in 2023, according to FactSet data. Shares dropped for 12 out of 16 weeks at one point in 2022. But there hadn’t been an eight-week losing streak until 2025.
Tesla stock rose for 11 consecutive weeks starting in August 2021. That’s only good enough for third place for bull runs in Tesla stock. Shares gained for 12 consecutive weeks twice, once in 2013 and once in 2019.
The eight-week decline was partly fueled by an epic postelection rise. Shares went from roughly $250 to $490 from early November to mid-December. Investors were hopeful that a second term in office for President Donald Trump would benefit the auto maker, partly by making regulations designed to usher in an era of self-driving cars. Tesla plans to launch an autonomous robotaxi service in 2025.
But CEO Elon Musk’s political activities have created some anxiety for investors. Monday’s drop left Tesla stock down 5% since the Nov. 5 election. Tesla sales in the U.S., Europe, and China were weak to start the year.
It might not all be Musk. RBC analyst Tom Narayan pointed out that the Model Y changeover explains part of the weakness. Tesla recently updated its most popular vehicle and is ramping up production of the new Y. There is typically an air pocket when sales of an old car model fall as buyers wait for the upgrade.
Narayan rates Tesla stock at Buy with a $440 price target. Artificial-intelligence-trained self-driving cars represent about 57% of his price target. Selling advanced driver assistance features to Tesla drivers represents another 25%. The base car business only represents 9% of his target, or about $40 a share.
That’s one way an analyst breaks down the difference between self-driving technology and building cars. Overall, 48% of analysts covering Tesla stock have Buy ratings. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%. The average analyst target price for Tesla stock is about $370.
The average target price is almost 50% higher than Friday’s closing level. That rise would be great, but investors would take any move in the green this week.