Weekly Analyst Highlights: Oil, Tesla On Readers' Minds

Below are the most-read analyst stories from the past week on Benzinga.

1. Analysts at Bank of America are not buying into the Tesla Motors Inc TSLA hype. Analyst John Lovallo cut the price target from $70 to $65, expecting the stock to plummet more than 70 percent.

The analyst said that the company is facing a 'no demand' scenario and is "pulling back on production" in order to "create the appearance of rising demand."

2. Crude oil declined in early Monday trading, putting oil stocks under pressure. Transocean Ltd. RIG was down by 3 percent.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley do not expect the pressure to abate, as US crude stocks are "elevated and set to build through May," which may lead to increased volatility, but offers "limited" upside.

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3. Barclays analysts forecasted a decline in oil production growth for the companies in its coverage universe, from 14 percent growth in 2014 to only 8 percent in 2015. While this news may be positive for oil investors, the analysts believe many E&P names, such as United States Oil ETF USO, remain overpriced at current levels.

"We believe the stocks discount a price recovery to $80-85/bbl oil, a level that is 30-35 percent higher than the current 2016 strip," they explained in the report.

4. Oncothyreon Inc ONTY climbed on Wednesday afternoon on rumors of a possible move on Pharmacyclics, Inc. PCYC. In a report, Bernstein analysts said that the valuation looks "a bit too pricey (…) In other words: you have a $1B asset generating $30B in biotech company valuation."

Deutsche Bank also commented that the valuation is too high.

5. GoPro Inc GPRO dipped 4 percent on Monday, after an analyst said the company will go nowhere unless it can beat giant competitors in the development of video-editing software. Morgan Stanley analyst James Faucette initiated coverage on GoPro with an Equal-Weight rating and a $57 price target.

"If GoPro is the one who successfully brings that to market, then you have a lot of upside," Faucette commented.

Image credit: Vlad Lazarenko, Wikimedia