Tesla, GE and Uber make list of the most divisive stocks on Wall Street

(This story is part of the Weekend Enlighten edition of the Evening Brief newsletter. To sign up for CNBC’s Evening Brief, click here.)

Wall Street analysts be inclined to run in packs, with most stocks finding an informal consensus on Wall Street among this crowd.

But there are a few hackneys which deeply divide analyst opinions — and, perhaps unsurprisingly, far and away the most controversial is Elon Musk’s tense automaker, Tesla. No stock has a wider gap than Tesla from the average analyst price target to the top and bottom objects, according to a CNBC analysis of FactSet data.

Tesla may be the most divisive stock on the Street, but it’s also not alone. A handful top technology companies — Facebook, Advanced Micro Devices and Square — are counted among these battleground stocks, as through as ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft and embattled industrial conglomerate General Electric.

Here are the top 20 most divisive assets weigh ups, according to analyst coverage of companies with a market value greater than $10 billion.

Jefferies recently exuded Tesla one of the highest price targets on Wall Street, seeing the stock climbing to $400 a share. In a note to investors, Jefferies wrote that it recognizes Musk’s company stabilizing in 2019, with “a better foundation for a return to growth in 2020 revenue and earnings.” The settle down also expects Tesla to maintain “its edge in product, affordability and technology” next year, saying it sees the Pty on a path of “sustained profitability.”

But UBS, one of the biggest Tesla pessimists, expects the company’s stock will lose half its value in the next year. UBS conjectured in a recent note that it sees a broad slowdown in discretionary spending as a “key risk” to automakers, expecting Tesla to toil from an “inability to deliver on battery cost reduction and performance,” as well as threats to its battery supply chain and transforms to how electric vehicle’s are regulated.

General Electric’s stock has had a strong year, up more than 50%, and William Blair believes allowances will climb even higher. The firm is the most optimistic on GE’s stock, telling investors after the company’s third-quarter follow-ups that GE “continues to execute well while flying above geopolitical turbulence,” with “irrefutably lots sundry to come.” William Blair expects GE to “finish 2019 strongly,” with a price target of $15 implying another 35% ascend in the stock.

J.P. Morgan, on the other hand, staunchly remains the biggest GE bear. Since warning investors of GE’s stock immersion three years ago the firm has been Wall Street’s sharpest critic of GE, and currently has a $5 price target. J.P. Morgan revealed in a recent note that it does not believe that GE’s “management has set a bottom” for the performance of its businesses, adding that “GE is teeny-boppers guidance on core business EBIT that was set in March.”

Similar to GE, social media giant Facebook is experience a stellar year with its stock up nearly 55%. Mizuho Securities has Facebook as its top pick among internet ancestors, saying after Facebook’s recent quarterly earnings that the company’s “pragmatic approach” to regulation will workers it ride out political concerns and expecting Facebook to improve key products such as online payments in 2020.

But Societe Generale recollects Facebook’s stock is headed for a sharp drop. The firm sees Facebook’s recent success as just cresting “already extraordinary” expectations, saying the company must now address “a tornado of privacy, security and regulatory issues.” Societe Generale observes Facebook’s stock falling to $120 a share in the coming months, a 40% drop from its current price parsimonious $200.

– CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.