Tesla stock slashed in punishing week: 4 biggest recent analyst moves

Amid the biggest ratings changes in the past week, Tesla was slashed at Oppenheimer and suffered another painful tumble in the past five sessions. Here are all of this past week's most significant analyst rating changes, covered first on InvestingPro+. Sign up for comprehensive, rapid-fire coverage of market-moving analyst moves.

The week started with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) taking the straight path back to fair value. Oppenheimer's research team came out swinging during the holiday week with a Monday downgrade on Tesla to Perform and no price target (one might argue that dreams are hard to intrinsically value).

The respected brokerage wrote that Twitter knock-on effects likely will distract Elon Musk enough to cause further damage to Tesla, as opposed to helping the company. The firm wrote, "We believe increasing negative sentiment on Twitter could linger long term, limiting its financial performance and become an ongoing overhang on TSLA."

The stock slid some 20% for the week.

On Tuesday, professional scalp traders were jumping all over Piper Sandler's launch of coverage on Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD), which it started with an Overweight rating and a $60 price target.

The brokerage wrote, "We recommend investors own Trade Desk for exposure to the multi-year connected TV ramp but also as a unique asset in the broader digital advertising market."

After InvestingPro+'s early-morning alert of the coverage, traders were promoting the initiation during premarket trading - a favorite tactic, as the price can be hyped up on thin liquidity, then sold to retail investors when the market opens at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Shares opened for retail traders at $44.03 and closed the day at $46.61, over a 5% gain on the day. For the week, shares were off 1.8%.

Roblox Corp (NYSE:RBLX) was cut to Underperform by Wolfe Research premarket Wednesday: Essentially, says the firm, the equity will likely underperform "the primary market index for the region (S&P 500 in the U.S.) by at least 10% over the next 12 months," per the fine print on their research documents.

The research outlet has a dark outlook for the firm, noting consensus expectations are essentially unhinged and management appears to have no control over guiding expectations - because management chooses not to predict their business three, 12 or any months out.

Furthermore, metrics and visibility are coming in less than impressive. Notes the brokerage, "With little visibility into what the sustainable bookings growth for RBLX is driven by uncertainty regarding its ability to monetize advertising, and its ability to drive profitable DAU growth in less developed countries, we downgrade to Underperform from Peer Perform."

The professional scalpers profited premarket as the equity slid following InvestingPro+'s early-morning alert on the downgrade, and those who bought the equity closed up 1.9% on the day, as the market looked to be taking an opposing view to Wolfe. Shares ultimately lost 3% for the week.

On Thursday, DA Davidson upgraded Helen of Troy (NASDAQ:HELE) to Buy from Neutral primarily because of a model adjustment that saw the brokerage adjusting FY 2025 EPS multiple from 10x to 11x. This, in turn, drove the price target higher - and, thus, the expected relative performance of Helen of Troy versus DA Davidson's benchmark.

The brokerage wrote, "We expect organic sales and EPS growth to resume in FY24, with FY25 acceleration due to Project Pegasus. We estimate FY24 free cash flow of >$100M. We are raising our target P/E to 11x from 10x, our PT to $126 from $115 (based on 11x FY25E EPS of $11.48), and our rating to BUY from Neutral."

Shares rose over 3% during the session following InvestingPro+'s alert, breaking through the $100 barrier to close at $102.54, and finished the week off at $103.69.

With that, most analysts and liquidity providers closed up shop for the holiday weekend ahead of the epic storm that ravaged the United States, so Friday offered no analyst moves worth noting.

Happy new year!

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