The story behind Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) dramatic turnaround in just over one year could very well go down in history, at least in the eyes of Elon Musk supporters. Shares of the company, after dipping below $200, are continuing to surge, breaking new records and trading at just below $900 per share. With the automaker now becoming the second largest in the entire world in terms of market cap, Tesla bulls are getting more excited than ever.
One of the most vocally optimistic groups regarding the automaker, the investment firm ARK Invest, has gone on to say that it predicts Tesla being worth an astonishing $7,000 per share by 2024. While this isn’t a surprise, considering the investment firm one year ago predicted prices could range anywhere between $700 and $4,000 by the mid-2020s, a share price of $7,000 would put Tesla well into the $1 trillion market cap range, vastly out sizing all other automakers in comparison.
In comparison, the majority of Wall Street analysts remain a bit more cautious on the stock and expect prices to come back down a fair bit, with the average price target sitting at around $536 per share. Now that Tesla is finally reporting a profit, however, most analysts don’t think the stock will ever fall back down to the low $200s it was trading at earlier.
“The electric vehicle is going to drop below the price of a gas-powered vehicle, like-for-like, within the next 18 months to two years, and then will continue to fall. So, it’s going to be a no-brainer. Electric cars are going to be cheaper and they’re better cars, they’re better calls,” said Catherine Wood, chief investment officer of ARK, who considers Tesla to be similar to what Amazon was 20 years ago. She went on to add that she expects electric vehicle sales to grow to 33% of all car sales, with 18% of that market share going to Tesla. “We’re not as worried about Tesla when it comes to that forecast, we’re more concerned that other auto manufacturers really haven’t even gotten started in this game.”
Tesla also made news on late Thursday when it officially received approval from a German court to build a new Gigafactory near Berlin. The new facility would require chopping down trees from a neighboring forest, something which had been met with environmental protests. In a statement, the court said that the decision is “final” and that it wouldn’t be able to be appealed.
Shares of Tesla ended Thursday down 2% and fell by an extra 1.2% in after-hours trading in a move that seemingly has little to do with the news. Overall, sentiments surrounding the once struggling automaker have undergone a complete reversal,
Tesla Company Profile
Founded in 2003 and based in Palo Alto, California, Tesla is a vertically integrated sustainable energy company that also aims to transition the world to electric mobility by making electric vehicles. It sells solar panels and solar roofs for energy generation plus batteries for stationary storage for residential and commercial properties including utilities. The Tesla Roadster debuted in 2008, Model S in 2012, Model X in 2015, and Model 3 in 2017. Global deliveries in 2018 were 245,506 units. Tesla went public in 2010 and employs about 50,000 people. – Warrior Trading News
