To The Moon

Nio shares jumped 7% in morning trading following the bullish call.Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu is the one who sees outperformance for NIO stock coming soon. “We think two factors will drive outperformance at NIO, allowing it to emerge as a leader among EV upstart,” wrote the analyst in a Monday report. It’s “finally time for the stock to shine bright.”

For starters, there is NIO’s new ET5 midsize sedan. Yu sees the premium sedan selling well based on initial feedback. That vehicle is also coming from NIO’s new production facility.

Second, Yu points out that NIO’s older vehicles are still selling well. “We believe this represents thoughtful pricing and emphasis on branding [plus] service,” added the analyst.

Chinese new energy vehicle sales—which includes battery electric vehicles and plug in hybrid electric vehicles—are up more than 100% year to date compared with the same period of 2021, according to Citi analyst Jeff Chung. NIO sold about 72,000 vehicles so far in 2022. That’s up only 28% year over year.

Slower growth is one reason that NIO stock is down about 40% year to date. Still, Yu doesn’t believe that result is all that bad considering the product line up and competition.

Yu calls NIO his top pick among Chinese EV makers. His price target is $39 a share. That’s a little higher than the average analyst price target of about $31 a share, but most analysts seem to agree that NIO is a good stock for the long run. More than 90% of analysts covering the shares rate them Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 58%.

A year ago, the Buy-rating ratio was about 82%. Back then there was one Sell rating. Today, no one rates NIO stock Sell.