Tesla stock ( TSLA ) pushed higher on Tuesday, hitting another record and adding to monster end-of-year gains as another Wall Street analyst says there's more room to run.
Tesla shares jumped 3.6%, closing over $479 per share. The stock is up nearly 20% in the past five days, reflecting positive news reports regarding Tesla's — and CEO Elon Musk’s — connection to President-elect Donald Trump.
Tesla stock is now up over 85% since Election Day.
The latest analyst to weigh in is Vijay Rakesh of Mizuho Securities, who upgraded Tesla to Outperform from Neutral and more than doubled his price target to $515 from $230.
Citing "idiosyncratic tailwinds," Rakesh like other analysts, believes loosening autonomous driving rules from the incoming Trump administration, the repeal of consumer electric vehicle tax credits — which Rakesh believes will ultimately benefit Tesla over others — and a more profitable low-cost EV versus its peers gives Tesla room to run in 2025 and beyond.
"We expect TSLA's leadership across EVs, solar/battery storage, and charging infrastructure should allow the company to better weather the storm than less-established peers as the Trump administration removes subsidies for key end-markets," Rakesh wrote to clients. "We also see less stringent regulation on autonomous vehicles ('AVs') as a key tailwind to TSLA's ability to scale FSD/Robo-Taxi deployments, with our base case scenario implying significant long-term revenue from AV operations."
Bumping Mizuho's price target to $515 shows the bank is playing catch-up due to missing out on the rally, but the firm's new target implies around 10% more upside is possible. Mizuho and Rakesh see a "bull case" of $681 a share if Tesla can accelerate its Full Self-Driving (FSD) and robotaxi deployments, and hit breakthroughs with its Optimus robot and AI development.
On Monday Wedbush analyst Dan Ives kicked off Tesla's good week with a price target improvement as well.
“We estimate the AI and autonomous opportunity is worth at least $1 trillion alone for Tesla and we fully expect under a Trump White House these key initiatives will now get fast tracked,” Ives wrote in a note to clients on Dec. 16, upping his price target to $515 to from $400.
Reuters reported on Friday that Team Trump has recommended that the new administration remove a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) order requiring automakers to report crashes involving self-driving or autonomous driving systems. Such a move would obviously be a good thing for Tesla. The company has had to report more than 1,500 crashes to NHTSA involving its FSD and Autopilot software, Reuters said.
Last month, Bloomberg News reported Trump’s transition team has told advisers it plans to make a “federal framework” for full self-driving (FSD) or autonomous vehicles one of the Transportation Department’s priorities, according to people familiar with the matter.
Easing rules for the introduction of self-driving vehicles, especially those without pedals or steering wheels, would be a huge boon for Tesla. Musk has repeatedly said that the future of the company hinges on FSD and autonomous technologies.
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagr am