Brutal December for Tesla stock continues

Tesla stock is having a bad year, and a very bad December so far.

Shares of the EV maker are down 18% so far this month, according to Yahoo Finance data, and down more than 50% so far in 2022.

The stock fell 1% in premarket trading on Wednesday, and the company’s ticker page remains among the most visited on Yahoo Finance as fans of the brand grow increasingly antsy.

Analysts point to several factors behind the stunning fall in Tesla’s once indestructible stock price.

First, the risk of operational miscues at Tesla has grown as Elon Musk focuses on the newest company in his portfolio, Twitter.

Second, concerns remain around manufacturing issues and the pace of sales for Tesla in China amid an uncertain approach to COVID-19 policies.

And lastly, competition in the EV space in the United States has only intensified this year — raising the risk of slowing growth for Tesla in 2023 and beyond.

“Musk has gone from a superhero to Tesla’s stock to a villain in the eyes of the Street as the overhang grows with each tweet,” Wedbush Managing Director Dan Ives, a Tesla bull who removed Tesla’s stock from Wedbush’s best ideas list in mid-November amid the Twitter drama, told Yahoo Finance.

The stock drop has also led to Musk losing his status as the world’s richest person to LVMH Founder Bernard Arnault, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

All that said, as shown in the graphic below, Tesla remains dominant relative to other EV-first companies.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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