Tesla (TSLA) share prices may have rebounded over the past month, but that doesn’t mean investor confidence is moving in the same direction.
Over the past few months, the electric vehicle (EV) producer has faced some steep challenges, many of which can be traced back to CEO Elon Musk’s polarizing behavior. His political affiliations have sparked a backlash from consumers far beyond the U.S., compromising the company’s sales on a global scale.
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Despite the momentum TSLA stock has seen recently, the company has failed to demonstrate any sustainable growth, typically falling again as quickly as it rises. This indicates that in an uncertain economy, it is not as well-positioned to overcome shifting market tides as some of its big-tech peers.
Declining sales aren’t the only factor compromising Tesla stock, though. Recent reports indicate prominent investors are slashing their positions in the unstable company.
Legendary fund manager slashes Tesla stock investment
When market conditions start to shift in a negative direction, hedge fund managers will do what their industry’s title suggests — hedge their bets, even on the market’s highest-growth companies. Right now, that appears to mean trimming positions in Tesla, a stock that seemed poised to soar as markets turned a corner into the new year.Related video: Reasons why you should and should not buy a Tesla (The Koerner Office: Business Ideas & Growth Advice)
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One hedge fund in particular made some critical moves during the first quarter of 2025. Coatue Management, founded by billionaire investor Philippe Laffont, recently offloaded a sizeable portion of its Tesla holdings. Based on 13F filings, the investment firm trimmed its position by 600,000 shares, reducing it from 2.2 million to 1.6 million.
Tesla isn’t the only mega-cap tech stock that Coatue sold in Q1. It also offloaded 1.4 million shares of Nvidia (NVDA) , reducing its position from 10 million shares to 8.6 million. Additionally, the hedge fund lowered its position in Microsoft (MSFT) from 3.5 million to 3.3 million, selling off a total of two hundred thousand shares.
These numbers make it clear that the tech-focused hedge fund is growing increasingly less bullish on U.S. companies. This is further evidenced by the fact that it completely exited positions in software producer ServiceNow and struggling chipmaker Qualcomm.
Granted, Nvidia remains one of the fund’s top holdings, a category that also includes Amazon and IT company Super Micro Computer. However, that list does not include Tesla, which ranks substantially below Nvidia, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms in terms of the fund’s overall position, as well as plenty of much smaller companies.
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This indicates a clear lack of faith in Tesla and Musk from the firm’s management, and some Wall Street analysts seem to feel similarly. Barclays analyst Dan Levy recently maintained a hold rating on TSLA stock after lowering his price target from $325 to $275 in April.
Coatue isn’t the only Tesla shareholder who’s opted to jump ship
As Tesla stock has struggled recently, plenty of other shareholders have trimmed their positions, making it clear they don’t see the stock reaching its previous heights anytime soon. This list includes Musk’s brother Kimbal, who offloaded 75,000 shares in February 2025, according to an SEC Form 4 filing.
Related: Elon Musk gets devastating news as the ‘anti-Tesla’ catches on
Since then, this trend has not slowed down. Tesla board member Robyn Denholm has been offloading shares as well. “In just the last six months, she has sold $198 million in Tesla shares. These sales were executed under a 10b5-1 agreement that allows insiders from publicly traded companies to sell their shares,” reports TheStreet’s Tony Owusu.
With both company insiders and prominent Wall Street institutions rushing to dump their Tesla shares, it is hard to ignore the fact that faith in Musk’s leadership has been severely compromised.
Even after he announced plans to spend more time at Tesla in the future, the trend of investors selling TSLA stock hasn’t ceased. Unless the company can usher in an actual turnaround soon, more shareholders are likely to follow suit to protect themselves.
Related: Veteran fund manager unveils eye-popping S&P 500 forecast
