We’ve seen Target take a huge stock dive with about $14 billion in market cap lost as of Tuesday, since the middle of May. We reported how they faced two downgrades — from JP Morgan and KeyBanc — and had been on the worst losing streak that they’ve had in 23 years. JP Morgan cited as the basis for their downgrade “too many concerns rising.”

That’s a massive change in such a short period. Now, Elon Musk and Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary are warning about what might be the next shoe to drop for the company under siege.

O’Leary, on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” said that Target seems to have lost its way in terms of what its job is and how this was sending a warning sign to other companies about the dangers of going down the woke road.

On one hand, companies want to show their support of diversity in all the mandates that society is discussing openly. On the other hand, the job of a business — particularly from the perspective of an investor — and those that are retired, for example, that own the S&P 500 or own Target stock – are concerned that maybe they’re losing their way in terms of what the prime objective is: your customers, your employees, and your shareholders.

And so if you start to get too distant or too far away from the primary mandate, the market has proven itself to really, really punish you. And it’s woken up all kinds of boards.

They spoke about Target’s non-profit foundation funding an organization that wants to shut down Mount Rushmore because they claim it’s a symbol of “white supremacy.” The group also attacks the U.S. military.

O’Leary said that many companies still don’t understand the nature of social media and how such a reaction to them doing something the public doesn’t like can spread. He noted how Bud Light managed to do themselves in — after building the top-selling beer brand — in about “32 hours” after they endorsed Dylan Mulvaney’s “365 Days of Being a Girl.”

But he said, “There’re a lot of unhappy cowboys out there. They’re called your investors.”

Elon Musk even went further than that when he predicted how the shareholders might react.

Won’t be long before there are class-action lawsuits by shareholders against the company and board of directors for destruction of shareholder value

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 2, 2023

“Won’t be long before there are class-action lawsuits by shareholders against the company and board of directors for destruction of shareholder value,” Musk declared.

If that happens, then the companies will get the message. They may not be fully cognizant of social media’s influence, but they will understand shareholders screaming at them as their shares plunge, and that could have a very significant impact on their actions.

It’s also not just a lesson for Target, but for other companies as well. They’ll see what Target and Bud Light have done, and the hit they’ve taken. They wouldn’t want to lose billions or have to face the ire of their shareholders. This could have a positive effect on moving the companies away from pushing political positions in the future.