By
Bena Ilyas
April 23rd, 2024
There are a few stocks that deeply divide Wall Street analysts’ opinions. Perhaps unsurprisingly, far and away the most controversial is Elon Musk’s electric automaker, Tesla.
Usually, when analyzing stocks, Wall Street analysts are like a pack of wolves – agreeing on most of the stocks’ directions finding sort of an informal consensus on Wall Street among this crowd. However, there are always some stocks that separate analyst’s opinions. One of those is one of the most controversial these days – Tesla. For now, this stock has the widest gap from bottom to the top, according to different analysts.
Even though in the year-to-date analysis it did grew slightly – from $310.12 on January 2 to $329.94 on November 29, meaning +6.39%, it has been falling most of the time and especially from two weeks ago when Musk revealed its new Cybertruck. At the time of writing the stock was trading 0.47% higher selling for $331.50 in premarket trading.
And while Tesla may be the most alienating stock on Wall Street, it is definitely not alone. Several top technology companies such as Facebook, Advanced Micro Devices and Square, are included, as well as ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft and an industrial giant General Electric.
But let’s see what are the most common non-agreement issues between analysts’ approach to some stocks.
Tesla
Investment banking company Jefferies raised Tesla stock’s target price from $300 to $400. Based on its price at the time of writing, it represents a potential upside of almost 21%. In their note to investors, Jefferies wrote that it sees Musk’s company stabilizing in 2019, with “a better foundation for a return to growth in 2020 revenue and earnings and to “maintain its edge in product, affordability, and technology” next year, saying it sees the company on a path of “sustained profitability.”
However, UBS, which has always been pessimistic on Tesla, said that the company’s stock could lose more than half its value in the next year. It said Tesla could potentially have problems with its “inability to deliver on battery cost reduction and performance,” as well as with its battery supply chain and potential changes in a regulation of electric vehicles.
General Electric
General Electric’s stock had pretty much a good year behind. Its year-to-date analysis shows there were up more than 40% from $8.05 on January 2 to $11.27 on November 29, and financial services company William Blair & Company believes shares will go even higher. The company is said GE’s investors after the company’s third-quarter results, that GE “continues to execute well while flying above geopolitical turbulence,” with “irrefutably lots more to come.” William Blair expects GE to “finish 2019 strongly,” with a price target of $15.
However, JP Morgan Chase thinks differently. Three years ago they warned investors of GE’s stock plunge and now they’ve put a $5 price target.
Social media giant Facebook had also a great year with its stock up nearly 49% from the beginning of this year. Mizuho Securities explains Facebook’s recent quarterly earnings with the company having a “pragmatic approach” to regulation that will help it ride out political concerns. Also, Mizuho says it is optimistic on Facebook improving online payments in 2020.
But Societe Generale, on the other hand, thinks Facebook’s stock is headed for a sharp drop because of privacy, security and regulatory issues.” Societe Generale sees Facebook’s stock dropping to $120 a share in the next few months, a 40% drop from its current price near $200.