Analysts have moved to downgrade the shares of Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN) on Thursday as the slump across electric vehicle stocks continues.
Electric Vehicle Stocks Decline
Shares of RIVN have declined more than 25% after the company's disappointing earnings release after the close on Wednesday. The company's production guidance also missed expectations when it said it would reduce its salaried workforce by around 10%.
Another EV company, Lucid Group, also forecast production below analyst expectations, with its share price declining more than 16% Thursday.
The misses in production guidance show the signs of a slowdown in electric vehicle demand has not yet slowed, which has also been noted by other companies in the sector, such as Ford and GM.
JPMorgan Downgrade
Reacting to the Rivian results, JPMorgan analysts said there are concerns surrounding the company's backlog, growth, pricing, and margin. They downgraded the stock to Underweight from Neutral, lowering the price target to $11 from $20 per share.
"We are downgrading shares of Rivian Automotive (RIVN) to Underweight from Neutral after slashing our estimates and price target to account for substantially slower growth amidst continued large losses," said the investment bank's analysts.
"The company has fallen far short of its own targets for vehicle sales and production, let alone the seemingly much more ebullient expectations of its investors, and disappointing new guidance revealed yesterday implies essentially no growth in 2024 (in our view strongly hinting at growing
demand problems that leave little likelihood for a re-acceleration of growth until at least 2026)," they added.
CFRA Cuts Rivian to Sell
Elsewhere, CFRA Research also downgraded shares of Rivian to Sell from Hold, slashing their 12-month price target for the stock to $10 from $20 per share.
CFRA said the electric vehicle company's earnings miss was driven by higher-than-expected costs, as revenue of $1.32 billion came in $60 million ahead of consensus.
"From our perspective, RIVN's adjusted EBITDA guidance is mere wishful thinking, as it implies it can cut its 2023 EBITDA loss by about $1.4B this year despite lower volumes," wrote CFRA. "Unfortunately, there's little RIVN can do to improve its near-term financial performance absent stronger demand."