Tesla’s stock soars to 4th-straight record as Wall Street’s biggest bear raises price target

Shares of Tesla Inc. charged higher to a fourth-straight record close Monday, after even the most bearish analyst on Wall Street analyst lifted his price target following the electric vehicle maker’s blowout deliveries results.

Tesla rival Nio Inc.’s stock NIO, +22.70% also soared, in the wake of the China-based EV maker’s upbeat June sales report. Meanwhile, among other EV makers, shares of Workhorse Group Inc. WKHS, -15.78% pulled back after a record 11-day win streak and Nikola Corp. NKLA, -14.46% was headed for a fourth straight loss.

Tesla’s stock TSLA, +13.47% shot up a record $162.92, or 13.5%, to $1,371.58. The stock has soared 42.9% over the past five days, the last four of which were record closing prices.

Analyst Ryan Brinkman at JPMorgan raised his stock price target by 7.3% to $295, but that was still 78.5% below current prices. Brinkman’s target remained the lowest of the 32 analysts surveyed by FactSet.

The price target increase follows Tesla’s report Thursday that it delivered 90,650 vehicles in the second quarter, well above expectations of 72,000.

Brinkman said that the deliveries data led Chief Executive Elon Musk to imply Tesla’s second-quarter report, due out on or about July 22, could produce a surprise break-even result. But he cautioned investors that any “substantially better results” could include items that are “one-time or somewhat one-time in nature,” such as zero-emission regulatory credit sales or the release of deferred revenue associated with autonomous driving features.

Brinkman reiterated the underweight rating he’s had on Tesla for at least the last three years, citing “lofty valuation” coupled with “high investor expectations and high execution risk.”

“Our underweight rating considers notable investment positives, including a highly differentiated business model, appealing product portfolio, and leading-edge technology, which we believe are more than offset by above-average execution risk and valuation that seems to be pricing in a lot,” Brinkman wrote in a note to clients.