NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Tesla Motors (TSLA) - Get Report are slipping, down 3% to $195.66 in early market trading Wednesday, after analysts at CLSA downgraded the electric car maker to "underperform" from "outperform" this morning.

Analysts at the firm also lowered their price target on shares to $220 from $275.

CLSA cited near-term earnings risk from lower initial Model X margins, "which in light of Tesla's recent execution issues and together with investor concerns around demand, could limit this year's upside potential."

"We believe the stock could continue to underperform this year, as investors debate over Tesla's demand and earnings trajectory," CLSA said in a note.

Longer term, the firm believes the stock is attractive and sees signs of progress in China. CLSA also said there is a promising stationary storage opportunity.

Palo Alto, CA-based Tesla designs, develops, manufactures and sells electric vehicles and advanced electric vehicle powertrain components. Tesla owns its sales and service network.

Insight from TheStreet's Research Team:

Guest contributor, Anton Wahlman commented on Tesla Motors in a recent post on RealMoney.com. Here is what Wahlman had to say about the stock:

Norway, March 1-16:

VW eGolf: 500 units.

Tesla: 316 units.

Here's the relevance.

One year ago, Tesla (TSLA) sold almost 1,500 cars in Norway in the month of March. That's the bogey. It was -- by a wide margin -- the biggest month for Tesla in Norway in 2014. It was all dramatically downhill from there.

This year, March was the month when they were going to have to beat that number, as they made the delivery of the four-wheel drive cars in March for the first time (Model D).

Based on the first half of the month, it doesn't look so good: 316 cars out of about 1,500 necessary.

The bottom line is that they are looking increasingly likely to fall short of even the twice-lowered 1Q outlook already.

The 1Q global delivery guidance is for 9,500 cars. I'm currently estimating a shortfall of 500-1,000 cars, or almost 10%. In addition to that, they would also guide down 2Q at that point and tell everyone they'll be making it up in the second half of the year!

- Anton Wahlman, 'Tesla: Now Back to Reality' originally published 3/19/2015 on RealMoney.com.

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Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates TESLA MOTORS INC as a Sell with a ratings score of D. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate TESLA MOTORS INC (TSLA) a SELL. This is driven by multiple weaknesses, which we believe should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks we cover. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow, poor profit margins and generally high debt management risk." You can view the full analysis from the report here: TSLA Ratings Report