The stock's strong performance following a "fundamentally poor quarter" has been partly due to anticipation for the June launch of both a more affordable vehicle and robotaxi service, the analyst told investors.

Baird on Monday downgraded Tesla Inc. (TSLA) shares to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ with an unchanged price target of $320. The EV-maker’s stock traded 2% lower in Monday’s pre-market session.

The stock's strong performance following a "fundamentally poor quarter" has been partly due to anticipation for the June launch of both a more affordable vehicle and robotaxi service, the analyst told investors in a note, as per TheFly.

However, Baird believes Tesla CEO Elon Musk's comments regarding the robotaxi ramp rate "are a bit too optimistic," and that this excitement has been priced into shares. The firm also noted that Musk's ties to President Trump, which soured last week following a war of words, "have added considerable uncertainty."

However, Baird sees Tesla as a core holding in the long term. The $320 price target also implies an 8% upside to the company’s closing price on Friday.

Musk has been looking to shift Tesla’s image from an automaker to an artificial intelligence and robotics company with self-driving robotaxis and humanoid robots called Optimus.

While the pilot launch of robotaxis is expected this week in Austin, Texas, the company is looking to build Optimus on its pilot production line at the Fremont factory this year.

However, Tesla’s lead executive for its Optimus humanoid robot program, Milan Kovac, left the company on personal grounds last week.

Kovac, who joined Tesla in 2016, said in an X post on Friday that he will be moving out of his position as a vice president of engineering.

“I’ve been far away from home for too long, and will need to spend more time with family abroad,” he wrote while also terming it “the most difficult decision” of his life.

Kovac also clarified that the decision has nothing to do with anything else.

“My support for Elon Musk and the team is ironclad - Tesla team forever,” he said. “Elon, you’ve taught me to discern signal from noise, hardcore resilience, and many fundamental principles of engineering. I am forever grateful. Tesla will win, I guarantee you that.”

Kovac also opined that his exit will not delay the Optimus project, which he took over in 2022.

In April, Musk said that Tesla will initially deploy a small fleet of its Model Y vehicles in June as part of the robotaxi pilot launch in Austin. The CEO also stated that he sees Tesla operating robotaxis in many other U.S. cities by the end of the year.

Musk also stated that the company anticipates having thousands of Optimus robots operating at its factories by year-end.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Tesla remained unmoved within the ‘extremely bearish’ territory over the past 24 hours, coupled with ‘extremely high’ message volume.

TSLA's Sentiment Meter and Message Volume as of 7:10 a.m. ET on June 9, 2025 | Source: Stocktwits


TSLA stock is down approximately 22% this year but up about 70% over the past 12 months.

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