Cowen & Co. analyst John Blackledge downgraded shares of Carvana Co. to market perform from outperform late Monday, joining analysts from Oppenheimer and Wedbush who both lowered their ratings on the used-car retailer’s stock in the past few weeks. Cowen’s Blackledge wrote that “industry & macro headwinds have impacted unit growth and revenue trajectory while lengthening the path to profitability” for Carvana. “Despite recent cost-cutting efforts, CVNA has not met ’22 profit targets while carrying a significant debt load. Overall, we are less confident in CVNA’s timeline for reaching positive free cash flow.” He added that the company has been working to reduce costs in areas like advertising spend, but he said that such efforts have “further weighed on units sold.” Carvana’s stock was off 0.3% in premarket trading Tuesday following the downgrade. The shares have plunged 97% so far this year as the S&P 500 has dropped 17%.
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