JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman has earned the crown as Tesla's most stubborn bear. For nearly a decade, his coverage has been a broken record of bearish calls—and as the saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Just before Tesla shares went parabolic in 2019—ultimately soaring 1,700% over the next several years—Brinkman still pounded the table with repeated bearish calls. Now, the analyst—who seemingly holds a grudge against Elon Musk—is at it again.
Around 1Q15, Brinkman maintained a "Hold" rating on the stock, but his stance shifted shortly after that, holding a bearish outlook ever since.
Brinkman's pessimism continued Friday in a note to clients, telling them that Tesla has undergone "unprecedented brand damage we had earlier feared." He noted that the sales report from earlier in the week "causes us to think that — if anything — we may have underestimated the degree of consumer reaction."
Ahead of Wednesday's vehicle delivery data from Tesla - Goldman, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and UBS cut estimates for 1Q deliveries between 351,000 and 375,000. The prediction market Kalshi expected 353,000, marking a 9% drop. The actual number was in the 330,000 region.
The company reported 12,881 deliveries of its other models, including its Cybertruck, Model S, and Model X.
"Tesla delivered 336,681 vehicles in the first three months of the year, its worst quarterly total since 2022," Bloomberg noted, adding, "In addition to changing over production lines at each of its assembly plants to build the redesigned Model Y, the automaker was contending with Musk, its chief executive officer, becoming a more polarizing figure due to his interventions in global politics."
As of the latest Wall Street consensus (data via Bloomberg), 55% of analysts covering Tesla maintain a "Buy" rating, 23.3% rate the stock as "Hold," and 21.7% assign a "Sell" rating.
The clock strikes again for Tesla bears (TSLAQ crowd). But was a decade of bearishness really worth it—while missing out on gains of thousands of percent?
