Tesla’s stock tumbled below $150 per share, giving up all the gains made over the past year as the electric vehicle maker reels from falling sales and steep discounts intended to lure more buyers.

Shares in the Elon Musk-owned company slid nearly 4% in intraday trading Thursday, in what now stands as the third worst week for the stock in 2024, a year that has been dismal for Tesla investors. The Austin, Texas company’s shares are down 12.4% this week and more than 39% this year.

Shares of Tesla Inc. last traded at the $150 level in Jan. 2023.

It’s also been a bad year for employees. Tesla said Monday that it was cutting 10% of its staff globally, about 14,000 jobs. The next day, Tesla announced it would try to re-instate Musk’s $56 billion pay package that was rejected by a Delaware judge in January, who said that the arrangement was dictated by Musk and was the product of sham negotiations with directors who were not independent of him.

At the time of the Delaware court ruling, Musk’s package was worth more than $55.8 billion, but the stock slide has cut that to $44.9 billion at the close of trading on Friday, according to a company filing this week.

Tesla shares hit an all-time intraday high of $415.50 in Nov. 2021, adjusted for a 3-for-1 stock split that took effect in August 2022.

Tesla sales fell sharply last quarter as competition increased worldwide, electric vehicle sales growth slowed, and price cuts failed to draw more buyers. The company said it delivered 386,810 vehicles from January through March, nearly 9% below the 423,000 it sold in the same quarter of last year.

Dan Ives, an analyst with Wedbush who has been very bullish on Tesla’s stock, called the first quarter sales numbers an “unmitigated disaster.”

“For Musk, this is a fork in the road time to get Tesla through this turbulent period otherwise dark days could be ahead,” Ives wrote this week.

Yet on Thursday, Deutsche Bank joined other industry analysts in voicing concern over Musk’s big bet on autonomous vehicles as it stripped the company of its “buy” rating, citing Tesla’s “change of strategic priority to Robotaxi.”

Wall Street expects that Tesla will report a decline in first quarter earnings next week and many are wondering if there’s any near-term catalyst for growth that would end Tesla’s stock slide. Industry analysts were expecting a new small electric vehicle for the masses that would cost around $25,000, the Model 2, but there were reports last week that Musk was scrapping that project.

Musk disputed the reports, but wrote on X, the social media platform that he owns, that Tesla would unveil a robotaxi at an event on Aug. 8.

Uncertainty over the release of a cheaper vehicle from Tesla has altered the equation for analysts like Deutche Bank’s Emmanuel Rosner.

Such a delay would tie Tesla’s future more closely to “cracking the code on full driverless autonomy, which represents a significant technological, regulatory and operational challenge. We view Tesla’s shift as thesis-changing,” Rosner wrote.

Since last year, Tesla has cut prices as much as $20,000 on some models as it faced increasing competition and slowing demand.

Other automakers also have had to cut electric vehicle production and reduce prices to move EVs off dealership lots. Ford, for instance, cut production of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup, and lopped up to $8,100 off the price of the Mustang Mach E electric SUV in order to sell 2023 models.

U.S. electric vehicle sales growth slowed to 3.3% in the first quarter of the year, far below the 47% increase that fueled record sales and a 7.6% market share last year. Sales of new vehicles overall grew 5.1%, and the EV market share declined to 7.15%.

In addition to massive job cuts this week, Tesla this week announced the departure of two high-placed executives.

Andrew Baglino, Tesla’s senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, is leaving after 18 years with the company.

Rohan Patel, senior global director of public policy and business development and eight-year Tesla veteran, is also departing.

Students at the University of Texas at Austin protested Thursday after the school laid off more than 60 staff members to comply with Texas’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) ban that went into effect earlier this year.

About 200 students at the university disrupted a virtual faculty council meeting conducted by the university’s president Monday to oppose the layoffs, NBC News reported.

The Texas State Employees Union posted on the social media platform X that a rally would be happening on UT Austin’s campus midday Thursday to rally “in solidarity with those who were abruptly fired from positions formerly associated with DEI.”

The decision, the group said, “leaves the staff unemployed as of July and deeply impacts a wide range of programs that serve our campus community.”

The university recently laid off 60 employees who worked in DEI-related fields, including 40 who were in the Division of Campus and Community Engagement.

The layoffs come as the school looks to comply with Senate Bill 17, a law that banned DEI initiatives at public universities in the state that went into effect earlier this year.

The school’s president, Jay Hartzell, said in an email that the institutions knew the changes were coming before the start of the year.

“We knew that more work would be required to utilize our talent and resources most effectively in support of our teaching and research missions, and ultimately, our students,” Hartzell wrote.

The students who disrupted the faculty meeting said they wanted to show Hartzell they want transparency and communication.

Other state public institutions have also faced intense scrutiny to prove compliance with the law. State Sen. Brandon Creighton told university leaders that institutions could lose funding if they don’t follow the law.

• A severe storm knocked down an eagle nest and baby in the Austin area last week.

• Rescue staff checked the baby for injuries and provided it with fluids and nourishment.

• After clearing the eaglet for release and being informed that its parents were still in the area, Austin Wildlife Rescue partnered with Texas Parks and Wildlife to renest it.

AUSTIN (KXAN) – A wildlife rescue in Texas treated a special type of patient for the first time last week: a baby bald eagle.

Several people found and brought the eaglet to Austin Wildlife Rescue (AWR) after severe storms knocked down a tree branch containing its nest last week. Rescue staff checked the baby for injuries and provided it with fluids and nourishment.

After clearing the eaglet for release and being informed that its parents were still in the area, AWR partnered with Texas Parks and Wildlife to renest it.

“It’s always important to us to renest whenever feasible, since babies always do best when they can be cared for by their parents,” AWR Executive Director Jules Maron said in a statement to KXAN. “Bald eagles are especially important to keep with families, so we were so happy for the opportunity to renest.”

Using a make-shift nest fashioned from a laundry basket and nesting materials, officials lifted the eagle about 30 feet back into the tree. Maron then secured it with rope and zip ties.

“It’s definitely a little nerve wracking trying to balance on a ladder, secure a nest, and handle an angry baby bird of prey, but we have a pretty good method to our madness,” Maron said.

Landowners continued to check on the eaglet after its renesting. The AWR has reported that one of the eaglet’s parents has been seen multiple days at the new nest caring for the baby.

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