Tesla stock declined more than 5% Tuesday, despite the broader market rallying on upbeat November inflation data.
Shares of the electric vehicle maker traded around $162, and have shed 55% year-to-date. Tesla’s market value stood at $513.96 billion, and has been cut in half in 2022.
According to Bloomberg data, Tesla is now trading at 30 times projected earnings, its all-time low, as the electric vehicles behemoth encounters hurdles including decreased demand in China as well as Elon Musk’s dramatic acquisition of Twitter.
According to Wedbush’s Dan Ives, Tesla now presents a prime target for activist investors because of its slumping stock price. That could push the company into launching a stock buyback program; an idea Musk teased in Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call.
“We also believe activism will start to increase across the broader tech sector as names such as Salesforce and Tesla being two examples will face growing pressure around margins, buybacks, and strategic moves,” Ives said in a Monday note.