President Donald Trump’s recently imposed auto tariffs are going to weigh on General Motors in the near term, according to Barclays. The bank downgraded the Detroit automaker to equal weight from overweight and slashed its price target on the name by $30 to $40. That implies more than 11% downside from Monday’s closing level. “While we see some mitigating actions, GM will nevertheless face pressure given nearly half of the vehicles it sells in the US are assembled outside of the US,” analyst Dan Levy wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday. “GM also faces risk on its EV targets given its affordable EVs are made in Mexico.” The downgrade comes just a day after General Motors, as well as other auto stocks, climbed on Trump saying Monday that he’s ” looking for something to help some of the car companies .” While that put the gains of the automaker at more than 6% over the past week, shares have still fallen about 6% since the president’s 25% tariffs on imported vehicles to the U.S. went into effect earlier this month. This year, the stock has also plummeted more than 15%, underperforming the S & P 500’s more than 8% loss in the period. GM YTD mountain GM, year-to-date Levy noted that just under half of General Motor’s vehicles sold in the U.S. are put together outside the country, with Mexico and Canada accounting for about 30% of sales, and that about 75% of the light duty full-size trucks sold in the U.S. are from those two nations. As a result, the analyst anticipates that the automaker is due to experience “relatively high” disruption in the near term. When it comes to electric vehicles, Levy also said that General Motors will likely reduce its overhead spending in the coming years. This year, he believes the company could be “challenged” in meeting its goal of narrowing EV losses by about $2 billion. “We modestly prefer Ford over GM given a higher mix of US-assembled vehicles, however Ford will also face clear tariff pressures and has a weaker financial position,” the analyst added. To be sure, Levy’s view is not among the majority’s on Wall Street. Of the 29 analysts covering the automaker, 15 have a strong buy or buy rating, while 11 analysts have a hold rating, according to LSEG. Shares dipped more than 1% in the premarket Tuesday.
