Al Root
Tesla stock was bouncing on Monday after Thursday's delivery disappointment. Still, it remains stuck in a downward trend, while investors wait for AI catalysts.
Shares of the electric-vehicle maker were up 0.7% at $363.17 in premarket trading, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.1% and flat, respectively.
Tesla stock dropped 5.4% on Thursday, ahead of the holiday weekend, after the company reported weaker-than-expected delivery figures.
The electric-vehicle maker sold 358,023 cars in the first quarter. Wall Street was looking for deliveries of about 366,000 vehicles, so it was a miss. Tesla also made about 50,000 more cars than it sold. Increasing inventories can lead to discounting and lower production down the road.
The "record surge in unsold vehicles adds to free cash flow woes," wrote JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman on Monday. Inventory drains cash until that inventory is sold, of course.
Brinkman cut his 2026 earnings estimate to $1.80 from $2. His price target is $145 a share, one of the lowest on the Street, and about 60% below recent levels.
The Thursday drop sent shares down for a seventh consecutive week, resulting in a 14% loss over that span. The streak started after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings in January. The solid report didn't give the stock a boost, though. Investors appear to be waiting for something new to send shares higher again.
Robo-taxis could do it. "Tesla's ability to scale the unsupervised robo-taxi fleet is the most important catalyst for the stock this year," wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco in a recent report.
Tesla launched an AI-trained robo-taxi service in Austin, Texas, in June. In January, on the fourth-quarter earnings conference call, the company laid out plans to be in nine cities by the first half of 2026. Investors are still waiting for the paid service to start in a new city.
Percoco expects Tesla stock to move with progress on robo-taxis. He rates shares Hold and has a $415 price target. For now, that matters more than EV sales.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 06, 2026 09:22 ET (13:22 GMT)
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