Al Root
Morgan Stanley has a new automotive analyst who is shaking up his predecessor's ratings.
Andrew Percoco has taken over car coverage from Adam Jonas, who is now focused on " embodied AI." With the switch came several different calls on stocks.
For starters, Percoco cut Morgan's Tesla rating to Hold from Buy while raising his price target to $425 from $410 a share. He sees AI-linked opportunities for the company. Tesla is using AI computing to train cars to drive themselves and humanoid robots to do useful work. But that is mostly priced into shares. Faster-than-expected rollout of Tesla's robo-taxi service, launched in June in Austin, Texas, with a safety monitor on board, could push shares higher.
Along with Tesla, Percoco cut ratings on Rivian and Lucid.
He rates Rivian stock Hold. Jonas rated shares Buy. Percoco, however, kept his price target at $12. A downgrade with the same price target shows how shares have been doing. Coming into Monday trading, Rivian stock was up 28% over the past three months and up 35% this year.
Tesla stock was off 1.3% in premarket trading at $449.13. Rivian shares were down 2.8% in premarket trading at $17.44, while S&P 500 futures were up 0.1% and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were flat. Lucid stock was down 3.4% at $12.96 per share.
Percoco's new rating for Lucid stock is Sell. Morgan Stanley's prior rating was Hold. His price target for shares is $10, down from $30. While Tesla has an AI business, the problem for Lucid and Rivian is slowing U.S. EV sales. President Donald Trump removed the $7,500 federal EV purchase tax credit at the end of September. It's a significant headwind for EV pricing and sales, and the EV "winter" will last in 2026, says Percoco.
Fewer EV sales mean more sales of internal combustion engines, a boon to traditional auto makers. Percoco now rates General Motors shares Buy, up from Morgan's prior rating of Hold. His price target is now $90, up from $54.
GM stock was up 1.6% in premarket trading at $77.30.
Overall, 63% of analysts covering GM stock rate shares Buy, according to FactSet. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%. The average analyst price target for GM stock is about $77 a share.
Now 3o% of analysts covering Rivian stock rate shares Buy. The average analyst price target is about $15. For Tesla, 39% of the analysts covering its shares rate them Buy. The average price target is about $401.
Only 14% of analysts covering Lucid stock rate shares Buy and 36% rate shares Sell. The average Sell-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 5oo is about 7%. The average analyst price target for Lucid shares is about $17.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 08, 2025 07:56 ET (12:56 GMT)
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