Wedbush Raises Tesla Price Target To $1,900, Calls China A 'Paradigm Changer'

Tesla Inc TSLA traded higher by another 8.5% on Monday after one Wall Street analyst raised his price target for the electric vehicle stock.

The Tesla Analyst: Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives reiterated his Neutral rating for Tesla and raised his price target from $1,800 to $1,900.

The Tesla Thesis: Ives said accelerating EV demand in China in July and August was the primary driver of his price target hike. Ives said Tesla’s China gigafactory appears to be operating at a run rate to reach 150,000 vehicle deliveries per year. He said Tesla appears back on track to hit its guidance of 500,000 global deliveries in 2020.

“We believe that the China growth story is worth at least $400 per share in a bull case to Tesla as this EV penetration is set to ramp significantly over the next 12 to 18 months, along with major battery innovations coming out of Giga 3 (million mile battery remains an elusive goal now in the grasp in our opinion)," Ives wrote in the note.

Ives said success in China is a “paradigm changer” for Tesla’s long-term global EV penetration story.

At the same time, Ives said Tesla’s million-mile battery could be a major value creator in the long-term, potentially making the company a major third-party supplier to other automakers. Tesla will make a number of major battery announcements at its Battery Day event on Sept. 22.

Benzinga’s Take: As is the case with many other Wall Street analysts, Ives seems to love all the news coming from Tesla and expects massive growth from the company in the coming years. Yet with the stock up 710% in the past year and Tesla’s market cap at $324 billion, he is unwilling to recommend buying the stock at its current valuation.

Tesla's stock traded around $17,91 at the time of publication.

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