Tesla stock downgraded amid Model 3 order cancellations

If Elon Musk’s outbursts suggest a distracted if not disturbed man, an analyst’s report on Thursday seems likely to leave the Tesla CEO unhinged.

The ratings downgrade by Needham’s Rajvindra Gill cut 3 percent off Tesla’s stock price before it recovered to $320.23 a share, a 1.1 percent decline for the day.

Most damning was Gill’s claim that nearly 25 percent of the orders for Tesla’s Model 3 have been canceled.

“In August ’17, [Tesla] cited a refund rate of 12 percent,” the analyst wrote. “Almost a year later, we believe it has doubled and outpaced deposits.”

Gill appeared sympathetic to those electing to bail rather than wait until 2020 for the $35,000 base-priced Model 3 — an electric vehicle not likely to be first available, he said, until the middle of next year.

The analyst also forecast slower sales for Tesla’s Models S and X, noting the EV field is getting crowded and the Model 3 will siphon sales from the company’s higher-priced sedans.

A cut in the $7,500 tax credit for consumers purchasing a Tesla — it’ll fall to $3,750 per car after the company sells 200,000 EVs, the analyst said — could crimp sales as well.

A Tesla spokesperson called the analyst’s assertion that Model 3 cancellations were outpacing new orders totally untrue, adding that the report in general was riddled with inaccuracies.

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