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Tesla ‘s big miss on first-quarter deliveries is raising alarm even among some of the stock’s most strident supporters. The electric vehicle company reported 386,810 deliveries for the first quarter , down 8.5% year over year and well below the 457,000 expected by analysts, according to FactSet. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, a longtime optimist about the automaker and its CEO Elon Musk, delivered a harsh review of the results Tuesday morning. “While we were anticipating a bad 1Q, this was an unmitigated disaster 1Q that is hard to explain away. We view this as a seminal moment in the Tesla story for Musk to either turn this around and reverse the black eye 1Q performance. Otherwise, some darker days could clearly be ahead that could disrupt the long-term Tesla narrative,” Ives said in a note to clients. There were several factors that appeared to contribute to the drop in deliveries, including shipping disruptions from the conflict in the Red Sea and an arson attack at Tesla’s Berlin factory, according to the company. Still, there are bigger-picture concerns about Tesla’s aging lineup and rising competition from Chinese rival BYD. Musk himself has also become a source of stress for some investors, given his role at other companies and a legal fight over his compensation. “While Tesla right now is caught between ‘two waves of growth’ patience is starting to wear very thin among investors. This is being exacerbated by the Musk AI outside of Tesla chatter, Board issues, Delaware Musk comp void, and now a likely move to incorporate in Texas,” Ives said. Wedbush still has an outperform rating on Tesla and is bullish on its long-term self-driving aspirations, but Ives said this quarter would be a critical period in the company’s history. “For Musk, this is a fork in the road time to get Tesla through this turbulent period otherwise troubling days could be ahead,” Ives added. Shares of Tesla were down more than 6% on Tuesday.
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