Cloud Hosting

Coming into Friday trading, Tesla stock had risen for 10 consecutive days. It looks like 11 is a foregone conclusion. mainly because of a big deal, but Wall Street is helping too.

Tesla was up about 6% at $248.88 in midday trading, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite had risen about 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.

The electric-vehicle company is the most active stock in the S&P today and the indexs biggest gainer.

An 11-day series of gains would be the longest since January 2021, according to Dow Jones Market Data. As Bespoke Investment Group points out, 11 days is the longest run on record. Shares have risen about 36% in the current upswing.

Shares of Tesla shot up Thursday evening after General Motors (GM) and Tesla announced an agreement that will have GMs electric-vehicle drivers charging at Teslas supercharger network. Its similar to a deal Tesla struck with Ford (F). RBC analyst Tom Narayan wrote Thursday he expects a similar announcement from Stellantis (STLA).

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

More EVs at Tesla chargers means more revenue for Tesla. The deal brings the sum-of-the-parts, or SOTP, valuation further into play, wrote Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a report Friday. SOTP valuations are one way to value a company. They look to see if the value of different businesses inside a company implies a higher, or lower, stock price.

In the case of Tesla, it sells cars, solar roofs, battery storage products, autonomous driving software, insurance, and, of course, it operates a large network of EV-charging stations.

Ives raised his Tesla stock price target up about 40% to $300 a share from $215. He still rates shares Buy. In a nutshell, Musk and Tesla are playing chess while other automakers are playing checkers in this broader EV green tidal wave, he wrote. We are also adding Tesla to the Wedbush Best Ideas List this morning as the Street starts to better recognize the underlying value in the Tesla EV ecosystem into 2024 and beyond.

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

With the change, the average analyst price has risen a couple of dollars to $194 a share. Tesla stock is at almost $250 a share. Thats well beyond the average target price. It happened fast. A couple of weeks ago, Tesla stock was trading for about $185. Including Fridays early gains, Tesla stock has jumped about 37% over the past 11 trading days.

Just under half, or 49%, of analysts covering the stock rate shares at Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 53%.

No one has downgraded Tesla stock lately, but CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson is slightly less enthusiastic about the stock than he had been. He lowered his rating to Buy from Strong Buy Friday, reflecting that the stock has risen a lot lately.

The move was a little like when other brokers remove a name from a conviction Buy or top pick list but continue to recommend the shares. The GM and Ford

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

Write to Al Root atallen.root@dowjones.com

Here is the original post:
Tesla Is 'Playing Chess' While Others Play Checkers. The Stock Keeps Rising. - Barron's