Tesla stock was rising early Monday after a Wall Street analyst hiked his price target for shares materially.
This one is a little different.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives raised his now Street-high price target to $515 a share from $400 Sunday. His “bull case” is $650 a share. The new price target values Tesla at about $1.7 trillion. The “bull case” values Tesla at about $2.1 trillion.
Tesla stock was up 2.2% in morning trading, reaching a new high.
The second Trump administration will be a “total game changer for the autonomous and AI story for Tesla and Musk over the coming years,” wrote Ives.
Tesla uses AI-based computing to train its cars to drive themselves. Progress is being made—by Tesla and others. Tesla’s highest-level driver assistance software, Full Self Driving, or FSD, continues to improve. It can already do most of the driving most of the time, but still requires human supervision. Alphabet’s Waymo completesmore than 150,000driverless cab rides a week and Alphabet plans to expand Waymo to more cities in 2025.
As the technology matures, Ives, along with many on Wall Street, expect Trump policies will make it easier to offer self-driving services. “We believe the march to a $2 trillion valuation for Tesla over the next 12 to 18 months has now begun,” added the analyst in his Sunday report.
Ives is a long-time Tesla bull rating shares Buy. His bullishness isn’t what makes the target price different. Instead, the new target resolves an odd situation Tesla stock found itself in lately.
Coming into Monday trading, Tesla shares were up 73% since the Nov. 5 election, leaving it up about 76% year to date. The post-election move has gone so far so fast, it’s left shares trading higher than the highest target price from a large U.S. broker. Before Ives, the top target price was $420 set by Daiwa analyst Jairam Nathan.
It’s incredibly rare to trade above the highest Street target price. Historical data is difficult to come by, but the last time Tesla stock traded above $400 a share, before 2024, was late 2021. Back then, there were a few target prices at $467 a share, still above the Nov. 2021 peak of almost $410 a share.
Now, investors have a target price that’s well above the $436.23 level shares closed at on Friday. That will offer them some comfort. Time will tell if it’s enough to keep the epic rally in Tesla stock going.