Tesla Shares Could Gain 400% In 10 Years, According To Investor Who Once Owned 1% Of The Company

One of the biggest Tesla Inc TSLA bulls and early investors in the company is doubling down with a new prediction for the stock.

What Happened: Ron Baron, who heads Baron Capital Management, predicted in 2016 that Tesla would become one of the most valuable companies in the world.

“We invested $380 million between 2014 and 2016, which was 1.5% of our assets at the time,” Baron said in an interview for Bloomberg Wealth With David Rubenstein on Sept. 14.

Baron Capital Management owned around 1% of Tesla in 2016.

The bet has turned an investment in shares of the electric vehicle giant into a $4 billion profit for Baron. The fund manager sees Tesla shares gaining another 300% to 400% over the next 10 years.

“With Tesla, I thought the opportunity was to convert the cars that we make in the U.S. from gasoline to electric and that hadn’t been accomplished before," he said.

Baron said Tesla fought against car dealers, automobile companies and the oil companies, which wasn’t easy but he saw a bet on Elon Musk.

Baron owns four Tesla vehicles and said he sees the company leading the way in the future: “They’re innovating at the speed of light,” he said.

Related Link: Tesla Megabull Ron Baron Says It Was Painful To Sell 1.7M Shares/a>

Having a high conviction on Tesla’s future growth follows a similar approach to Cathie Wood and Ark Funds betting big on the automaker despite bearishness from others. The bet made the Ark Innovation ETF ARKK one of the top performing ETFs of the last five years.

Tesla’s market capitalization is $742.1 billion, making it the sixth-largest publicly traded U.S. company according to Assetdash.com.

TSLA Price Action: Tesla shares are down 1% to $750.83 on Thursday.