Lots of things were on sale this Black Friday—but not shares of Tesla ( TSLA ).
The EV maker’s stock finished the day up 3.7% as broader markets rose , leaving the shares ahead nearly 40% for the year. The stock now has a market capitalization of around $1.07 trillion, according to Visible Alpha data, making it one of only eight companies with a market value above $1 trillion.
Part of the reason: a bullish note from Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who today maintained an outperform rating and a $400 target price on the stock, the latter which is the highest tracked by Visible Alpha and well above its average around $255. (The stock ended the week around $345.)
Ives’ principal argument Friday was that the incoming Trump administration, of which Tesla CEO Elon Musk is an active part , will clear the way for the company’s aspirations for self-driving cars and artificial intelligence.
“The next step the Street awaits is a formal federal framework for fully self-driving vehicles as one of the Transportation Department's first key priorities,” Ives wrote. “This would be a huge step forward in easing US rules for self-driving cars and be a significant tailwind for Tesla's autonomous and AI vision heading into 2025.
Ives pegs those efforts as potentially worth $1 trillion to Tesla’s market value. “We believe the march to a $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion valuation for TSLA over the next 12 to 18 months has now begun,” he wrote.