Tesla surges after Morgan Stanley becomes the second Wall Street bank to drop coverage of the stock (TSLA)

Tesla stock price private

Markets Insider

• Morgan Stanley dropped coverage of Tesla on Tuesday, becoming the second bank to restrict the stock.

• Shares surged as much as 5% following the news.

• Also on Tuesday, new documents show the grueling ways Tesla hit its production goals in June.

• Follow Tesla's stock price in real-time here. 

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Shares of Tesla spiked as much as 5% Tuesday morning after Morgan Stanley became the second Wall Street bank to restrict its coverage of the stock and remove its price target. It could be a sign that Elon Musk is making progress in his bid to take the electric-car maker private, or that the analyst who covers the company has left the firm. 

Goldman Sachs dropped coverage last week, as is typical when a bank's investment banking division is hired by a company its equity research department covers. The two departments are legally divided by a so-called Chinese wall that prevents the two divisions from conflicts-of-interest.

Also on Tuesday, new documents reported on by Business Insider's Linette Lopez showed the grueling way Tesla reached its goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 sedans per week. During the week of June 23rd, Tesla reworked a little over 4,300 Model 3 vehicles, according to internal documents. Each car took an average of 37 minutes to repair.

And finally, In a video factory tour with YouTube star Marques Brownlee published early Tuesday, CEO Elon Musk said Tesla may be able to produce an electric car for $25,000, but that it would take three years to get there.

"I think in order for us to get up to...a 25,000 car, that's something we can do," he said. "If we work really hard, I think maybe we can do that in three years."

He added that design and technology improvements are the keys to affordability, but that scale of production plays an important role as well. 

Tesla's stock price has whipsawed in the two weeks since Musk first tweeted his plan to take Tesla private at $420 a share. After initially skyrocketing to $389 —near record highs — shares briefly fell back below $300 on Monday following a slew of securities fraud lawsuits and a reported subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shares are currently trading 32% below Musk's target of $420 per share. 

Read more about Tesla's bid to go-private:

• JPMorgan walks back its enthusiasm for Tesla's go-private bid, says 'funding appears to not have been secured'

• The SEC reportedly sent subpoenas to Tesla concerning Elon Musk's tweets about taking Tesla private

• IT'S OFFICIAL: Goldman Sachs is advising Elon Musk on his plans to take Tesla private

• Members of Tesla's board of directors are said to be lawyering up as crisis around Elon Musk deepens

• Pressure mounts on Tesla as it gets hit with a third securities fraud lawsuit in wake of Elon Musk's 'funding secured' tweet

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See Also:

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• Investors have turned complacent and are in danger of being sideswiped by a 'likely correction' that's approaching, Morgan Stanley says

• Elon Musk: Anyone who can do a better job as Tesla's CEO 'can have the reins right now'

SEE ALSO: Tesla's electronics are miles ahead of the competition — but Wall Street analysts who tore down a whole car worry they could be 'too centralized'