Elon Musk will speak at the first cabinet meeting hosted by US President Donald Trump on February 26, 2025 at the White House in Washington, DC.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Tesla Stock had not grown to this red.
For the seventh consecutive week since Elon Musk went to Washington to join the Trump administration, his automaker stock has declined, closing at $270.48 on Friday. This is Tesla’s longest winning streak in 15 years as a public company.
Tesla shares have dropped by more than 10% over the week and closed at the lowest level since it closed at $251.44 on Election Day on March 5th. The stock peaked at around $480 on December 17th, making Tesla well above $800 billion in market capitalization.
Several Wall Street Companies This week Bank of Americawith Baird Goldman Sachsreduces Tesla’s price targets.
Bank of America analysts cited concerns about the company’s decline in new vehicle sales and the lack of recent updates from masks regarding “low-cost models” as they cut their target from $490 to $380.
Goldman Sachs, which reduced its stock price target from $345 to $320, noted a decline in Tesla electric vehicle sales in the first two months of the year in some markets in Europe, China and the US.
Goldman analysts said Tesla is facing a “severe competitive environment for FSD” in China. There, major competitors say, “generally, they don’t need to purchase separate software because of smart driving capabilities.” FSD, or fully automated driving (supervisor), is Tesla’s partially automated driving system, which the company sells as a premium option in the US
Baird added Tesla to his “bearish fresh pick” this week. Analysts write that “production downtime” complicates Tesla’s “equation supply side.”
Elon Musk is standing as recognized by US President Donald Trump in Trump’s speech to the Congressional Conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on March 4, 2025.
Saul Roeve | AFP | Getty Images
But Wall Street isn’t just basic indicators like sales and production numbers. Investors are also trying to assess how much pressure Musk’s politics and work in the White House puts on Tesla.
“Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration adds uncertainty to the demand side,” a Baird analyst wrote.
Before taking on the role of President Donald Trump as an advisor and as a leader in so-called government efficiency, Musk was already leading many private ventures, including artificial intelligence startup Xai, social media company X, and aerospace and defense contractor Spacex.
Cattle of concern
Today, Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, is the official face of the Trump administration’s efforts to dramatically reduce federal workforce, spending and capabilities. Meanwhile, he continues to post inflammatory political rhetoric on X, denounce judges who he dislikes decision-making and promotes false Kremlin topics about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In America and Europe, rebels and anti-Tesla sentiment have risen, with alleged protests and criminal acts of arson and vandalism at Tesla facilities.
Even the most bullish analysts and many fans have had to acknowledge the impact of Musk’s politics on Tesla and its products’ desirability to a wide range of customers and investors.
CleanTechnica’s EV Advocates, which has long promoted Tesla, ran a column on Thursday focusing on ethics, pondering whether Tesla owners should sell their cars and whether the Tesla committee should launch Musk as CEO.
Musk and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a Friday memo, Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities wrote: He called it “the moment of gut checking for the Tesla Bulls (including ourselves).”
Wedbush said it uses sale as an opportunity to add Tesla to its “best ideas” list, setting its 12-month price target at $550.
“The best thing that has ever happened to Musk and Tesla was Trump in the White House to create a standards body environment with a federal autonomous roadmap at the heart of the Tesla Golden Strategy Vision,” the company wrote.
Tesla Bulls is considering the possibility that the company will soon launch a new affordable model EV, unveiling Robotaxi and unmanned riding services, providing humanoid robots that can work in the factory in the not too distant future. Ives said he hopes Musk will become more focused on Tesla and his other companies in the second half of 2025.
Analysts at TD Cowen are also optimistic. In a note on Thursday, they wrote: “It appears that Tesla is the early innings of its main product cycle for 2025-26.
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