TECH NEWS – Musk has denied rumors of his departure as Tesla continues to plummet on the stock market.

Shares fell nearly 5% recently after Politico claimed Musk would be leaving soon and the White House cast doubt on the report. The stock rally came despite Tesla’s first-quarter results, which showed it delivered 336,681 vehicles, well below analyst estimates of 377,000. Still, shares have rallied as investors bet that Musk will give his automaker more time and possibly reverse its poor fortunes. However, analysts at CFRA and Truist cut their price targets on Tesla, while Wedbush analyst Dan Ives criticized the company’s first-quarter performance. Musk joined the White House in refuting Politico’s claim, calling it fake news.

A few hours after White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt called Politico’s article garbage, Musk did the same on Twitter as the Tesla, SpaceX and xAI billionaire called Politico’s sensationalism fake news before Tesla shares closed the day up 5.3%. Still, two analysts lowered their price targets. Analysts at CFRA and Truist lowered their price targets to $360 and $280, respectively. CFRA’s Q1 Tesla delivery estimate of 360,000 units was lower than Wall Street’s estimate of 377,000 units, but Tesla still missed. The firm lowered its 2025 and 2026 EPS estimates to $2.45 and $3.60, respectively, based on the lower vehicle delivery estimates.

However, CFRA struck an optimistic tone on Tesla, noting not only that auto volumes were negatively impacted by the shutdown of the Model Y production line at all four factories, resulting in several weeks of production downtime, but adding that they expect a continued strong sequential rebound in auto volumes starting this quarter.

Truist encourages investors to focus on the company’s assisted driving platform, FSD. The bank outlines that Tesla’s future FSD upgrades are more important to the long-term value of the stock, but adds that it has been forced to lower EPS estimates and price targets due to the drop in deliveries. Truist has a Hold rating on Tesla shares, while CFRA maintains a Buy rating despite the target cut. Wedbush’s Dan Ives, one of Tesla’s biggest fans, maintains an Outperform rating and a $550 price target. However, Ives believes that Tesla’s first-quarter results were even worse than expected. He doesn’t mince words about Musk’s relationship with the U.S. government, arguing that the more he politicizes DOGE, the more the brand suffers.

Musk needs to balance his role as Tesla’s CEO with his responsibilities to the government, according to Ives. The weak first-quarter performance forces the Wedbush analyst to call the results a disaster by any measure, which is a moment of truth for Musk to navigate this moment of tornado crisis for the brand and move to the other side of a dark chapter with much better days ahead for Tesla.

Tesla shares reversed course in after-hours trading, falling 3.5% on Musk’s response.

Source: WCCFTech