Tesla's Stock Unaffected By Report Of Factory Downtime

Shares of Tesla Inc TSLA were trading notably higher Monday, despite some concerning headlines over the weekend.

What Happened

Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas said in a note on Friday that Tesla investors should take advantage of the stock's momentum to take some of their profits off the table. A Bloomberg report on Sunday said Tesla had to temporary pause production of its Model 3 sedan from Feb. 20 to Feb. 24.

A Tesla spokesperson told Bloomberg the outage was part of a period of "planned downtime" and it's "common in production ramps" for this to occur.

Why It's Important

Tesla investors appear to be giving the company's management team confidence in its ability to continue ramping the Model 3 sedan -- and for good reason, according to Global Equities Research's Trip Chowdhry.

"When a major shift occurs, the leaders have always emerged from Out-Side the Industry," Chowdhry said in a brief email note to clients. "It will be foolish to believe that any of the Incumbents will be leaders in Autonomous Vehicles, the leader will come from outside of the Industry and the leader is 'TESLA.'"

Chowdhry, a longtime Tesla bull, has a $485 price target on the stock.

What's Next

Tesla's stock still has some room to go before matching its all-time high of $389.61, but momentum appears to be on its side. Shares are higher by 8 percent over the past month and 10 percent since the start of 2018.

At time of publication, the stock was trading around $344.09, up 5.1 percent on the day.

Related Links:

Elon Musk's Thoughts About China, Tariffs And Import Duties: 'Like Competing In Olympic Race Wearing Lead Shoes'

Gene Munster: Tesla Could Add Billions In Revenue With Ride-Sharing