Tesla Stock Rises on Analyst Bullishness and 'Amazing' Delivery Work - Barron's

Photograph by Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

Shares of electric-auto maker Tesla rose in the first trading session of the second quarter as investors prepared for an expected update on delivery and production numbers while digesting the usual mixed diet of company news.

Tesla stock (ticker: TSLA) was up 2.3% to $286.37 near midday as the broader S&P 500 index advanced nearly 1%. The shares were ahead as Canaccord Genuity analyst Jed Dorsheimer reiterated a Buy rating and a $450 price target, well above FactSet’s average of around $333.

Dorsheimer’s Monday note followed a recent visit to the company’s Fremont, Calif., facility. While there, he drove the Standard Plus, which upgrades the interior of the new $35,000 model.

“This introduction and the consumer response to the quantum leap forward in performance will capture the lion-share of current EV offerings,” Dorsheimer wrote. “With the performance of a 911 and the price of an Audi A4 or BMW 3 series, we see the Model 3 as the best value proposition currently on the market today.”

Newsletter Sign-up

That may have helped the stock on Monday—but so might have some weekend tweets from Elon Musk. On Saturday, the CEO praised what he called “amazing work by Tesla Delivery teams, especially in Europe & China! Most insane logistics challenge I’ve ever seen.”

The company is expected to release first-quarter production and delivery data before long. Speculation about how many vehicles might have still been in transit at the quarter’s end—the company doesn’t recognize the revenue on cars it hasn’t handed off to owners—has clouded estimates about its first-quarter performance.

Tesla watchers who’d rather learn about the company’s next next vehicles were treated to a picture of a Tesla semi truck that Musk said was delivering Tesla cars. “We’ve been so mired in production & logistics for past 18 months,” Musk tweeted. “Really looking fwd to getting Semi into production.”

Of course, there’s more. The matter of Elon Musk vs. the Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to head to a New York federal courtroom on Thursday.

That’s plenty.

It’s perhaps a tribute to Musk’s offbeat approach to public life that he chose to release a song, titled “RIP Harambe,” along with an update to his Twitter name, over the weekend rather than on April Fools’ Day, as might have been fitting.

Comments on the song’s SoundCloud page—there were more than 2,000 in early afternoon—included such gems as “Fire Elon” and “This song made me reconsider all my life choices.”

Email David Marino-Nachison at david.marino-nachison@barrons.com. Follow him at @marinonachison and follow Barron’s Next at @barronsnext.

Let's block ads! (Why?)