Tesla stock rose again Thursday, powering ahead after closing the previous session at a 52-week high, as investors weighed details about the coming “Cybercab.”
Coming into Thursday trading, Tesla stock was up about 50% since the company’s Oct. 10 Robotaxi Day.
The stock ended up 3.2% at $369.49, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 0.2% and 0.6%, respectively.
It’s another new 52-week high. Tesla stock hasn’t closed at Thursday’s level since April 2022, but the stock remains well below its record closing high of just under $410 a share, reached on Nov. 4, 2021.
One thing that helped the shares on Thursday is Tesla’s purpose-built robotaxi. which it expects to start selling in 2026. Tesla has been showing off the Cybercab since unveiling it in October.
While the optimistic reports of analysts are another driving factor.
BofA Securities analysts visited Giga Austin factory.
“The trip gave us increased confidence that TSLA is well-positioned to grow in 2025+ with its core EV business and launch of its robotaxi offering, and longer-term from its investments in Optimus,” lead analyst John Murphy wrote in a note to investors.
Murphy reiterated his Buy rating for Tesla and upped his price target to $400 from $350.
And on Wednesday, a Tesla engineer said that the Cybercab would have about half the parts of a Model 3. That means far lower costs to produce the vehicle. Sales are expected to begin in 2026.
Tesla plans to launch a self-driving robotaxi service in late 2025, before Cybercabs are sold, using existing models running Tesla’s highest-level driver assistance software. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives calls the self-driving business a trillion-dollar opportunity for Tesla.
Shares of the electric-vehicle maker closed at a new 52-week high on Wednesday, shrugging off concerns about deliveries and pay for CEO Elon Musk. Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney wrote Wednesday that he doesn’t think Tesla deliveries will grow in 2024 compared with 2023.
On Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call, management expressed their belief that deliveries would grow year over year, implying that at least 515,000 cars would be sold in the fourth quarter. Delaney, however, sees the number closer to 510,000 units based on his checks of regional sales data.
He rates shares Hold and has a $250 price target for the stock. Guggenheim analyst Ronald Jewsikow, who rates shares Sell and has a $175 price target for the stock, wrote Thursday that he sees only 491,000 units delivered. “Nothing we are seeing in the data supports 500,000-plus deliveries in Q4,” he said in a report.
Investors would like growth, but the bigger issue is how 2025 will turn out. Tesla is targeting 20% to 30% growth, with a new lower-priced model launched early in the year helping. That implies 2025 deliveries of about 2.3 million cars. Wall Street currently projects 2.1 million deliveries, according to FactSet.
There is also the issue of CEO Elon Musk’s pay. Monday, Delaware Chancery Court judge Kathaleen McCormick again ruled to void Musk’s 2018 pay package, which awarded him some 300 million incentive-laden stock options.
Wall Street appears to believe the decision is more of a nuisance for Tesla, which plans to appeal, and that Musk will get his money one way or another.
“Expect Tesla to appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court,” wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas earlier in the week. “There may be a range of other options; Tesla could propose a new pay package for shareholder approval but would likely be far more expensive to Tesla given the stock is trading at 15 times above the exercise price of the current option package.”
He rates shares Buy and has a $310 price target for the stock.
That is below where shares trade, but Tesla stock has been on a tear. It has risen about $118, or 47%, from the Nov. 5 election through Thursday.
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