Part 3/8:
In early April, just weeks before announcing the new price target of $500, Ives had lowered the Tesla target from $550 to $315. He cited "soft demand estimates" and asserted that "the brand of Tesla is suffering by the day as a political symbol." This reduction came as Tesla's stock had plummeted approximately 50% in a few months, making the drastic cut quite significant.
By May, however, as stock prices rebounded, he revised the target dramatically again, leaving many puzzled about the sudden change in attitude. Observers couldn't help but question the motivations behind these shifts—did the factors influencing the price estimates change so rapidly, or was there something else at play?