By
Svetlana Soroka
April 18th, 2024
Despite the gloomy EV deliveries in the EU, Wedbush Analyst Dan Ives believes the best days for Tesla are yet ahead and gives the stock a new 12-month price target of $950.
American electric vehicle (EV) automaker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) has received a bull case target from Wedbush Securities analyst despite recent reports showing the automaker is ceding EV auto sales grounds to other brands in Europe. According to a CNBC report on the European auto sales, French-based automaker Renault SA (EPA: RNO) top the list of the best-performing auto brands with its Zoe model.
Per the report, the auto-registration figures from November showed that plug-ins, a combination of pure electric and hybrid vehicles, rose by 198% year-on-year, while total car registrations across the whole of Europe were down 14%. The data showed that Tesla ranks as the fourth largest EV supplier (Model 3 version) in the region and the company lags behind Volkswagen Group (ETR: VOW3), and Hyundai Motor Co (KRX: 005380) whose flagship EVs include VW.ID3 and Kona respectively.
This performance has spurred industry veteran Peter Garnry, Saxo Bank Head of Equity Strategy who noted that the fact that other brands are beating Tesla to the game in Europe should be a source of worry for the company’s investors.
He said that “While this should worry Tesla shareholders, it is even more striking that the Model S and X are not in the top 20 ranking despite direct competing models such as Audi e-tron being on the list.” However, Garnry believes that “Tesla will be successful and become one of the biggest carmakers in the future, but the competition is heating up and that puts the $805 billion market value into question.”
At the time of writing, Tesla is up 4.21% in the pre-market to $849.21 after closing Thursday’s session with a 1.1% loss.
Tesla Still Has a Bull Case Price Target
Despite the gloomy EV deliveries in the EU, Wedbush Analyst Dan Ives believes the best days for Tesla are yet ahead and gives the stock a new 12-month price target of $950 from $715. The analyst established a bull case target of $1,250 upping it from the previous $1,000 target.
“We believe overall that EVs, which make up 3% of global auto sales today, could reach 5% by the end of 2021 and 10% by 2025,” he said. “There are 150+ auto makers aggressively going after the EV opportunity globally, right now in the EV market we believe it’s Tesla’s world and everyone else is paying rent,” he added.
Ives believes China and not Europe will be the region of Tesla’s future strength following the performance of the firm’s Shanghai GigaFactory.
“We believe that the China growth story is worth at least $100 per share in a bull case to Tesla as this EV penetration is set to ramp significantly over the next 12 to 18 months, along with major battery innovations coming out of Giga 3,” he explained.
In making his case for Tesla’s potential future boom, Ives also recognized that the climate change agenda of President Joe Biden when he is finally sworn in may favor the EV market, and by extension, the Elon Musk-led company.