Rising Nearly 5% Intraday... All-Time High Within Reach
Shares of U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla surged nearly 5% intraday on the 5th (local time), hitting a '52-week high.' This is attributed to continued bullish forecasts on Wall Street fueled by the 'Trump trade,' combined with investors' growing expectations surrounding Tesla's robo-taxi.
The Tesla robotaxi 'Cybercap' displayed at the Los Angeles Auto Show venue on the 21st of last month (local time). Photo by AFP Yonhap News
On that day, Tesla's stock closed at $369.49 per share, up 3.23% from the previous close, on the New York Stock Exchange. Intraday, it soared as much as 4.89% to $375.43, marking a 52-week high. This is the highest level in about 2 years and 8 months since the closing price of $381.82 on April 4, 2022.
Tesla is also within reach of its all-time high of $409.97 recorded in November 2021. Thanks to the so-called 'Trump trade,' Tesla's stock price has jumped more than 47% since the U.S. presidential election.
Financial media outlet Barron's pointed to the partial disclosure of details about Tesla's ambitious robo-taxi as the driving force behind the day's stock rally. On that day, a video was shared on X (formerly Twitter) showing an engineer in charge of the Cybercap introducing key specifications of the vehicle to visitors at a Tesla showroom. The engineer highlighted that the Cybercap would be made with about half the number of parts compared to the Model 3, emphasizing the low production cost of the Cybercap. Earlier, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had predicted at the robo-taxi unveiling event in October that the Cybercap's price would be under $30,000 (approximately 42.5 million KRW).
Since the U.S. presidential election, CEO Musk has rapidly risen as a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump, leading to positive outlooks for Tesla's stock. Stifel analyst Steven Gengaro described Musk's growing influence in the next Trump administration as "a very good sign for Tesla," diagnosing that Tesla now has "a clearer path" to pursue regulatory easing for full self-driving (FSD) and robo-taxis. Stifel has set a target price of $411 for Tesla.
Bank of America (BoA) also added to the bullish outlook that day. BoA maintained its 'buy' rating on Tesla and raised its target price by $50 to $400. BoA analysts mentioned that "Tesla is well-positioned to grow in 2025 and beyond," citing various opportunities ranging from electric vehicles to robo-taxis, robotics, software, and charging.
However, there are also pessimistic views. The short-term outlook for Tesla's electric vehicle business segment is not favorable. On the previous day, Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney predicted that Tesla's electric vehicle deliveries this year would not increase compared to last year, setting a target price much lower than the current price at $250. Guggenheim Partners analyst Ron Josikow also forecasted a decline in Tesla's deliveries this year in a report released that day, issuing a sell rating on Tesla stock with a target price of $175. Earlier, Tesla announced vehicle delivery results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 (July?September) that fell short of Wall Street experts' expectations (463,310 units), delivering 462,890 units, which caused the stock price to plunge more than 6%.
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