Tesla is a battleground stock. Here's where major Wall Street analysts stand right now. (TSLA)

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• Tesla analysts at UBS and Morgan Stanley slashed their price targets this week.
• Shares have tumbled 18% this year, and continue to starkly divide Wall Street.
• Markets Insider compiled a list of some of the most widely followed Tesla analysts and their views on the electric-car maker.
• Watch Tesla trade live.

Tesla has long been the quintessential battleground stock, a polarizing name among analysts and investors alike. It’s a pioneer in the electric-vehicle space, led by a controversial CEO who is mired in a legal battle and garners as much love as he does ire.

And its volatile stock price reflects that.

Tesla has fallen 18% this year, to $273.02 a share, closing modestly lower on Monday after analysts at Morgan Stanley and UBS cut their price targets. In January, shares soared as high as $351.50 before plunging after the company said it would lay off around 7% of its workforce.

Put another way, shares are off about 27% from their December peak following the “largest q/q sales drop-off ever reported, announced price cuts, & an under-whelming reaction to the Model Y reveal,” UBS analyst Colin Langan told clients on Monday.

“Given the volatility, we are vigilant for the next positive catalyst; however we don’t see one near term,” Langan added, days after Tesla’s first-quarter delivery results fell short of expectations.

Morgan Stanley, for its part, cut its price target for the third time in as many months. 

“The fundamental narrative around Tesla appears more clouded than we have seen in several years,” analyst Adam Jonas wrote. “Signs of weakening demand have raised long-standing questions about the company’s ability to fund itself as an independent company.”

But those are just two outlooks. Here’s where some of the other widely followed Tesla analysts stand on the stock, complete with their price targets, investment ratings, and some notable quotes from their latest investor notes.

Adam Jonas

Firm: Morgan Stanley

Price target: $240

Rating: Equal-weight

“The fundamental narrative around Tesla appears more clouded than we have seen in several years. Signs of weakening demand have raised long-standing questions about the company’s ability to fund itself as an independent company,” Jonas said on Monday.

Ryan Brinkman

Firm: JPMorgan

Price target: $200

Rating: Underweight

“The now clear incongruence of CEO outlook statements with official company guidance may hurt the perception of management commentary, eroding investor confidence and potentially placing additional pressures on the shares,” Brinkman said in report dated April 4.

Itay Michaeli

Firm: Citi

Price target: $273

Rating: Sell/High Risk

“Though Tesla bulls might look past the Q1 Model 3 miss (also given recent intro of $35k version), the S/X numbers will likely spark some legitimate demand & company margin concerns, particularly given the risk for some incremental cannibalization from the recently introduced Model Y,” Michaeli wrote in a note to clients on April 4.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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