Tesla Roars Back And Wall Street Likes It

With as much as a 30% bounce off multi-month lows in the past few sessions, shares of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are reminding investors and Wall Street alike just why they’re such a joy to own if you can handle the volatility. It’s never plain sailing with them, however.

As we wrote about earlier this week, Tesla has been among those on the front line as the wider tech market has sold off through February. Their 4 digit price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio had been overlooked all through last year when rates were at rock bottom, but with them starting to poke their heads up in recent weeks Tesla’s frothiness became very obvious.

From the last all-time high they set in the final week of January, shares fell about 40% into March. A sizable haircut to be sure. But if there’s one CEO and one company out there today who’d you back to turn it around just as quickly, it’s Elon Musk and Tesla.

Fresh Upgrades

So thinks Mizuho and New Street Research at least who’ve both come out with Buy ratings on the stock this week. The former are particularly bullish on the company’s advanced battery technology and like its prospects to disrupt the global energy market. This should translate into what they call a “defensible electric vehicle leadership position” and makes them good value for money against a fresh $775 price target.

The latter came at it from a different angle but are just as bullish. New Street Research pointed to the strong demand that’s just waiting for Tesla to feed it, with competition essentially a non-factor for the time being. In a note to clients, they added “with Berlin and Texas ramping, Tesla should reach 2m unit capacity, even is a lot of clouds sit on tight current timelines: building permits in Berlin, a delayed Model S&X refresh, Model Y ramp-up in Shanghai, and the Cybertruck still being in the design-phase. We don’t see any of these risks pushing the 2m mark beyond the end of 2022. This means Tesla should deliver over 2m units in 2023."

With that kind of forecast, they’ve no problem ascribing a price target of $900 to the stock, suggesting upside of some 35% from where it closed on Wednesday. This should be particularly appetizing to investors with cash to deploy and who still back tech to outperform the overall market in the years to come.

Fundamental Drivers

There are also longer-term fundamental factors starting to line up that only serve to strengthen the bull case. Sales numbers for electric vehicles in China have been growing consistently and only this week Tesla reported a 18% month-to-month jump in their February sales there. This was ahead of the general consensus and according to Wedbush was all the more impressive considering the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday has just started.

At the same time and a bit closer to home, 17 US House Democrats are planning to introduce legislation that would give the US Postal Service upwards of $6 billion to spend on electric delivery vehicles. This underlines just how mainstream electric vehicles are becoming and bodes well for Tesla’s ability to continue strengthening its grip on what’s yet a relatively untouched market.

There’s no doubt going to be some bumps on the road, and the current bout of selling mightn’t even be over yet, but Tesla is a stock you can’t help wanting to own some of. With their Relative Strength Index recently falling below 30 for the first time in a year, suggesting shares are oversold, maybe we’ve got a solid entry point on our hands.