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There were a lot of things on sale this Black Friday, but no Tesla stock (TSLA).
Shares of the EV maker ended the day up 3.7% as broader markets rose, giving the stock a nearly 40% lead for the year. According to data from Visible Alpha, the stock now has a market cap of about $1.07 trillion, making it one of only eight companies with a market value above $1 trillion.
Part of the reason: a bullish note from Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who today maintained an outperform rating and a $400 price target on the stock, the latter of which is tracked highest by Visible Alpha and well above average around $255. (The stock ended the week around $345.)
Ives’ main argument Friday was that the incoming Trump administration, of which Tesla CEO Elon Musk is an active part, will pave the way for the company’s ambitions in self-driving cars and artificial intelligence.
“The next step ahead for The Street is a formal federal framework for fully self-driving vehicles as one of the Transportation Department’s first core priorities,” Ives wrote. “This would be a huge step forward in relaxing US regulations for self-driving cars and provide significant support for Tesla’s autonomous and AI vision towards 2025.
Ives rates these efforts as potentially worth $1 trillion relative to Tesla’s market value. “We believe the march toward a $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion valuation of TSLA over the next twelve to eighteen months has now begun,” he wrote.
