Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA) Taken Down a Peg: What Next?

Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has done pretty much everything right so far in 2013. The company’s stock price has taken off, and CEO Elon Musk is receiving a lot of positive attention from people all over the world (see why).

What goes up, must come down. And this is exactly what happened with Tesla’s stock price yesterday.

Automotive News took an in-depth look at what happened, and here is what you need to know:

“The shares of electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc. fell 14 percent today after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. set a new price target far below the current trading price.

Goldman Sachs analyst Patrick Archambault, in a broader research note on the automotive sector published earlier today, offered three different growth scenarios for Tesla and set a six-month price target of $84 a share, up from $61, previously. He left unchanged his “neutral” rating on the stock.”

This is a big hit for the electric car maker, and one that many investors were not expecting. That being said, things were going so well for Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) that it was hard to believe this was not going to happen sooner rather than later.

It is interesting to note that Archambault released a research note talking about three potential growth scenarios for Tesla. Here is a breakdown of each scenario:

“In one case, Archambault sees CEO Elon Musk’s company selling 105,000 cars, including the Model S and a future smaller sedan, with 14.6 percent operating margins and earnings of $5.99 a share. In the second scenario, he sees 150,000 sales, 14.8 percent margins and earnings per share of $8.59. The most bullish scenario was for 200,000 sales, 15.2 percent margins and $11.69 in earnings per share.”

It is easy to believe that any one of these three scenarios could play out for Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) moving forward. While we don’t know what the future holds, what we do know is that Tesla stock took a plunge yesterday.

At this point, we are going to be keeping a close watch on what happens over the next few days. Will the stock recover nicely or will the plunge continue? This is the question that everybody is asking.

This is not a time for Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) investors to panic, however, it is important to pay close attention to the scenarios presented by Goldman Sachs analyst Patrick Archambault.