By
Bena Ilyas
April 23rd, 2024
Tesla got an elevation by Citi on its shares rating on Wednesday after hitting a 52-week intraday low on Tuesday.
Shares of EV maker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed at an addition of 8% following an upgrade from analysts at investment bank Citi (NYSE: C). Itay Michaeli of City pumped Tesla from a “sell” rating, moving the shares to a “neutral” rating. The upgrade is parallel to analysts’ consensus “hold” rating. Including the recent upgrade by Citi, there are currently 20 “buy” ratings, 11 “hold” ratings, and 5 “sell” ratings on Tesla shares.
Citi Upgrades Tesla Shares after Months of Declines
Tesla got an elevation by Citi on its shares rating on Wednesday after hitting a 52-week intraday low on Tuesday. Additionally, the Citi analyst upped his price precision on Tesla shares from $141.33 to $176 per share. This is indeed a turnaround for Tesla, which has seen its shares decline nearly 48% since the year began. As a matter of fact, the EV giant has been recording losses over the past year. Like many other companies, the automotive company was also affected by the broader market fall. Tesla’s poor performance for the year is also partially tied to Elon Musk’s ties with Twitter. It began with the push to acquire the social networking company, followed by the back-and-forth court case before closing the $44 billion deal. Many Tesla investors also believed that Musk was paying more attention to Twitter, leaving Tesla behind.
In addition, Elon Musk sold Tesla shares worth billions of dollars to finance his Twitter acquisition.
However, Citi analysts noted that it is about time Tesla sees its shares doing well again.
“We believe the year-to-date pullback has balanced out the near-term risk/reward. To become bullish from here, we’d like to gain added confidence on the average sale price/auto gross margin bridge (including tracking near-term data points in China and Europe) and FSD progress.”
FSD means Tesla’s full self-driving capability is installed in its vehicles. It currently costs $15,000 upfront or $199 every month on a subscription basis. Over the past year, Musk has made lots of promises to Tesla investors, some of which are still unfulfilled, including self-driving vehicles that can operate as robotaxis.
Musk Promises South Korea Tesla Factory
Furthermore, Musk revealed the plan for a new Tesla factory in South Korea. He told President Yook Suk-yeol about the factory that would eventually open in the country.
Since the billionaire took over Twitter’s ownership, he has been making significant changes, including a massive layoff. Musk also fired executives at the company while reforming some features on the platform. Under the new leadership, Twitter’s verified users will now pay $8 per month for the blue tick.
Even as Tesla stock gradually rebounds, investors are still concerned that the CEO’s attention is divided. At press time, TSLA is up 0.88% to $184.81 in after-hours trading.