Tesla shares plunge after company misses delivery target

Shares of Tesla fell more than 12% on Tuesday in its first full day of trading since the company announced missed 2022 delivery numbers.

Shares of the electric vehicle and solar panel maker closed at $108.10 and are down only nearly 70% since the start of last year. Stocks hit lowest since August 2020 and Tesla Market valueaccording to FactSet, fell to $341 billion, down from more than $1 trillion in recent April.

Tesla said on Monday that it sold a record 1.3 million cars last yearBut that number falls short of CEO Elon Musk’s pledge to increase deliveries by 50% almost every year.

The 2022 figure topped the previous record of 936,000 vehicles delivered in 2021, but still falls short of the 1.4 million vehicles needed to hit the company’s 50% growth target. Sales increased 40% year over year, while output increased 47% to 1.37 million.

Shortages come despite a big year-end sales push including rares US$7,500 discount on Models Y and 3, the company’s best-selling models. Analysts say Tesla is also cutting prices in China, leading some to question whether demand for the company’s vehicles is waning.

Tesla Inc., based in Austin, Texas, also has to deal with rising new coronavirus infections in China, which has hampered production at its Shanghai factory.

Analyst Jeffrey Osborne of Cowen and Co. expects investors to focus on missing the delivery target, but he sees only a modest negative reaction “following the severe weakness over the past few weeks due to production cuts in China and falling prices.” .”

Investors will need to see stability in profit margin Osborne wrote in a note to investors early Tuesday although lower prices, demand and ordering trends suggest a return to growth this year for the stock to gain further support.

In an apparent attempt to reinforce stock priceTesla announced on Monday that it will hold a Investors event on March 1 at its factory near Austin. Investors will be able to see Tesla Production linediscuss expansion plans and see the foundation that will underlie Tesla’s next generation of vehicles.

According to Forbes, the plunge in Tesla’s stock has also cost Musk billions of dollars, knocking him out of the top spot on the list of the world’s richest people.

Also contributing to the stock drop was Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter and the sale of his Tesla Share to help finance the purchase. Musk sold another $2.58 billion in Tesla stock last month and has sold nearly $23 billion of his car company stock since April, when he began building a spot in Twitter.

Lots of Investors is worried that Musk has become too distracted as Twitter’s CEO and isn’t paying enough attention to electricity transport Company. Musk has said that he will step down as Twitter CEO when he finds someone to run the social media platform.

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