Stifel Bullish On Tesla Motors

Analysts at Stifel upgraded shares of Tesla Motors TSLA to Buy with a $400 price target on Monday.

The new target price represents a 50 times multiple based on Stifel's 2017 estimates.

“We like Positioning, Runway for Growth in Luxury EV Market,” analysts at Stifel stated. “Tesla is best positioned to lead and defend its already multi-year branding/production advantage relative to OEM peers chasing luxury EV share.”

In regard to EV competition, analysts said, “It appears TSLA's primary competition remains reluctant to fully dedicate the resources necessary for developing a suitable Model S/X competitor with 200-300 miles of EV range.”

Stifel recently toured Tesla's production facility and found the company to remain on track to achieve a 1,000 unit per week production rate by year-end 2014. Analysts feel the rate of change compared to the last tour was “staggering.”

Shares of Tesla were last trading at $276.2, up 2.5 percent.