Tesla Stock Closed Above $900 for First Time. What Could Come Next. - Barron's

Tesla stock ended at $909.68 Friday, a record close. The stock's incredible run continues.
Photograph by Joe Raedle via Getty Images

Tesla stock hit a new all-time high in Friday trading, and closed at a record. The stock’s recent run has been incredible. How high can it go?

Tesla (ticker: TSLA) stock closed at $909.68, up about 1.8%. The S&P 500 dropped about 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added about 0.2%.

Shares of the electric-vehicle giant have been boosted by strong deliveries and earnings. Shares also got a boost Friday from a credit upgrade at S&P. Tesla debt is now BB+ rated, one notch below investment grade.

Tesla stock’s new 52-week intraday high is $910 on the nose. The old high-water mark of $900.40 was set on Jan. 25, according to Dow Jones Market Data. On Thursday, Tesla closed at a record for the first time since Jan. 26.

Shares are up about 40% over the past three months, pushing the market cap to roughly $910 billion. (Tesla has about 1 billion shares outstanding, making the math easy.)

Bulls, naturally, see more gains ahead. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives raised his bull-case Tesla stock price target to $1,500 from $1,300 after the company reported better-than-expected earnings on Wednesday.

“Tesla is rising because earnings revisions are soaring,” points out Gary Black, managing partner of the Future Fund Active exchange-traded fund. Analyst estimates for Tesla’s 2022 earnings have risen to about $8 a share from $6 over the past few weeks. “Rising estimates drove Tesla to the moon in 2020. They will drive Tesla to $1,000-plus in 2022,” Black says.

Ives rates Tesla stock Buy, and Tesla is the largest position in Black’s fund.

Yes, there are still Tesla bears out there who believe the stock is overvalued. The bottom third of analyst price targets averages about $425, less than half of Friday’s close.

Bears expect the sky-high valuation to give investors pause eventually. Stocks don’t usually fall just because investors, collectively, wake up one morning and feel differently about valuation. Something has to happen. The overall market could tumble, or the business could trip up. Analysts expect Tesla deliveries to grow to 1.3 million units in 2022 from about 890,000 units in 2021. Any hiccup to growth would be a negative catalyst for shares.

Whether the stock rises or falls in the short run is anyone’s guess. For now, though, the momentum belongs to Tesla bulls.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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