Tesla is having a very rough 2024, although casual investors and observers don’t really have to look back further than just the past few days, which have wrecked the company’s stock price.
Tesla stock hit a new 52-week low on Thursday after Deutsche Bank analysts joined others in slashing their ratings and price targets for the electric vehicle maker. Shares had already been sinking after CEO Elon Musk on Sunday announced that at least 14,000 workers would be laid off this week, according to a leaked memo to Tesla’s 140,000 global employees. The slew of layoffs confirmed previous concerns that Tesla is grappling with an EV demand problem, according to JPMorgan analysts.
Things were only worsened when two executives — Andrew Baglino, Tesla’s head of energy engineering and powertrain, and Rohan Patel, who oversaw public policy and business development — announced their resignations on Monday.
On Wednesday, Tesla reignited the debate over Musk’s $56 billion compensation package when it announced a shareholder proposal to re-approve it — albeit at a slightly smaller $47 billion. A Delaware state judge had shot down the plan earlier this year, wiping out some of Musk’s net worth. Oh, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth surpassed Musk’s by a narrow $1 billion margin.
Check out highlights from a busy week in Tesla news.