Brokerage Morgan Stanley announced on Tuesday it has restricted its coverage of CEO Elon Musk's Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), which is mired in controversy over its plan to take the company private.
The announcement may be an indication Morgan Stanley is directly involved with Tesla, with its website showing the carmaker was moved to "Not Rated" from "Equal Weight," a report by The Fly.com said. This followed reports that Goldman Sachs dropped its coverage of Tesla before admitting it is now a financial adviser of the company.
Goldman analyst David Tamberrino stated the change was due to the company "acting as a financial advisor in connection with a matter that is fundamental to the reasonable analysis of the rating and price target for this stock," TheFly's report said.
READ: Why Goldman Sachs doesn't think Tesla is the next Dell
Last month, Morgan Stanley analysts led by Adam Jonas rated Tesla with the equivalent of Neutral.
Musk has been besieged since announcing earlier in the month his plan to take the company private. Musk has said the funding for the deal will be done through equity and that the sovereign wealth fund from Saudi Arabia is eager to proceed.