Al Root

Tesla stock rose in early Monday trading after President Donald Trump excluded smartphones and some electronics from his most severe import tariffs.

Tariff drama will still be raging when Tesla and its peers report first-quarter earnings in just a few days. For Tesla, expectations are "low."

Shares of the electric vehicle maker were up 1.6% at $256.15 in premarket trading, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were rising 1.3% and 0.9%, respectively.

Most stocks benefited from Trump's Friday decision to exclude some electronics from "reciprocal" import tariffs, though Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that tariffs on the semiconductor sector were coming.

Coming into Monday trading, Tesla stock was down 38% so far this year and down 11% since the April 2 tariff announcement. Shares have moved an average of 4.1%, up or down, since the Jan. 20 inauguration. In the year before the inauguration, the average daily move up or down was about 2.9%.

"Q1 could benefit from pre-buy in March ahead of tariffs," wrote RBC analyst Tom Narayan in a preview report. Ford Motor and General Motors had solid first-quarter U.S. sales. Dealers might have been trying to avoid tariff hikes. Trump's 25% car-import tariffs are different from his "reciprocal tariffs" and aren't affected by his 90-day pause announced Wednesday.

Tesla doesn't import any of the cars it sells in the U.S., so it suffers less of an impact from tariffs than most auto makers. Narayan said the focus for Tesla will be on the "new affordable model coming in Q2 as well as the Austin robotaxi service coming in June," adding, "Expectations are already quite low, and any positive news could result in upside to shares."

Narayan rates Tesla stock Buy and has a $314 price target for shares. He cut it by $6 this past week.

The average analyst price target for Tesla stock is about $342 a share, according to FactSet. A year ago, it was $192. The average price target peaked at $381 a share in early February before investors started to worry that CEO Elon Musk's political activities were hurting sales. Tesla delivered about 337,000 cars in the first quarter, down 13% year over year and about 40,000 fewer than Wall Street expected.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 14, 2025 09:06 ET (13:06 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.