Time to get out of Tesla stock?

Analyst says dump before stock falls further; others believe production is just ramping up

With Wall Street preparing to key in on Tesla’s second-quarter earnings report on Wednesday, one analyst who follows the electric carmaker is getting a head start on telling investors what they should do with their shares.

And that is: Sell now, before it’s too late.

UBS analyst Colin Langan said in a research note late Sunday that he still expects Tesla’s stock price to fall to $195 a share over the next 12 months — a 33 percent decline from where Tesla traded at on Monday — and kept his rating on Tesla’s stock at sell. Langan said his views are based largely on uncertainty over Tesla’s Model 3 production levels and the possibility the company may soon have to go to the capital markets to raise more funding.

Tesla shares ended the day with a loss of 2.4 percent, to finish Monday at $290.17. For the year, Tesla’s stock price has fallen almost 7 percent.

In early July, Tesla said it did reach its goal of producing 5,000 Model 3s during the last week of June. However, Langan said, “It (is) unclear if the (production) rate is sustainable, as Tesla rolled out an average of 2,198 Model 3s a week during the quarter, and it finally produced 5,000 Model 3s in one week,” six months behind its initial estimate.

Langan also said that there remains some apprehension about Model 3 price points, as current configurations for the Model 3