Tesla stock slide deepens
Tesla’s shares slipped again this week — down about 19% year‑to‑date and nearly 20% over six months, with a 3.6% drop on Thursday to close at $372.11 — as debate over robotaxi prospects and short interest intensifies. On the sales front, Tesla extended Model 3 and Model Y financing offers in China through April to prop up demand in its largest market. (cleantechnica.com) (tickerreport.com) (driveteslacanada.ca)
U.S. safety regulators upgraded their probe of Tesla’s Full Self‑Driving software to an “engineering analysis” in mid‑March, a step that covers roughly 3.2 million vehicles and often precedes potential recall action. (cnbc.com) Wall Street is increasingly polarized: BNP Paribas has opened with bearish coverage and sharply cut targets while Morgan Stanley moved Tesla to Equal‑Weight with a $425 target, and the 41‑analyst consensus 12‑month price target sits near $407. (marketbeat.com) Demand worries underpin the debate—Tesla reported full‑year 2025 vehicle deliveries of 1,636,129 units, an 8.6% decline from 2024 and the company’s second straight annual drop. (ir.tesla.com) China shows mixed signals: delivery wait times at Giga Shanghai collapsed to roughly 1–3 weeks, indicating inventory has cleared, even as Chinese retail sales rebounded to about 38,206 units in February 2026 (roughly 13.74% BEV market share that month). (electrek.co) Short interest remains notable but not extreme—FINRA/exchange mid‑March figures show roughly 60–61 million shares sold short (reported between ~1.6% of outstanding and ~2.5% of float), with a days‑to‑cover near 1.0. (shortinteresttracker.com) Valuation metrics contrast with those operational strains: Tesla’s market capitalization is about $1.36 trillion and forward price‑to‑earnings ratios reported by data providers sit in the high‑hundreds to low‑200s (forward P/E roughly ~180–185 by several trackers). (marketbeat.com) The next corporate milestone is the Q1 reporting window—calendar estimates place Tesla’s first‑quarter 2026 results in the late‑April range (around April 21–28, 2026), though Tesla’s investor‑relations site had not posted a company‑confirmed release date as of the latest filings. (marketbeat.com)
