Tesla stock explodes higher again, topping $900 per share

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Shares of Tesla (TSLA) are ripping even higher.

The stock climbed another 20% to $940 per share just after market open on Tuesday, rising by $160 per share and adding more than $32 billion to Tesla’s market capitalization.

Tesla’s market valuation as of intraday trading Tuesday topped $165 billion, or more than four times that of Ford (F), or greater than three times that of General Motors (GM).

On Monday, shares of Tesla had surged nearly 20%, representing the largest one-day gain since 2013, to close at a then-record of $780 each.

The incredible rally puts shares of Tesla up by about 124% for the year-to-date through intraday trading Tuesday, better than the returns of any member of the S&P 500 for 2020 so far. Tesla is not a component in the blue-chip index.

A recent wave of bullishness on Wall Street has pushed Tesla shares higher, after the company delivered a fourth-quarter profit and an upbeat outlook for deliveries and its Model Y roll-out in the U.S. and China.

Tuesday morning, Tesla investor Ron Baron told CNBC he thought Tesla could hit $1 trillion in revenue in the next decade, and then grow further from there. Tesla’s 2019 revenue was $24.6 billion. Baron’s firm, Baron Capital, is not planning to sell any of its about 1.6 million shares in Tesla, with Baron saying he felt the company’s run-up was “just the beginning,” he told CNBC.

SHANGHAI, Jan. 7, 2020-- Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends an opening ceremony for Tesla China-made Model Y program in Shanghai, east China, Jan. 7, 2020.   U.S. electric carmaker Tesla officially launched its China-made Model Y program in its Shanghai gigafactory Tuesday, one year after the company broke ground on its first overseas plant. The first batch of China-produced Model 3 sedans was also delivered to its non-employee customers at an opening ceremony for the program. (Photo by Ding Ting/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/Ding Ting via Getty Images)
SHANGHAI, Jan. 7, 2020-- Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends an opening ceremony for Tesla China-made Model Y program in Shanghai, east China, Jan. 7, 2020. (Photo by Ding Ting/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/Ding Ting via Getty Images)

Earlier Monday, Argus Research analyst Bill Selesky raised his price target on Tesla to a Wall Street high of $808 from $556 and reiterated a Buy rating, citing revenue growth from Tesla’s Model S and X cars and strong demand for the newer Model 3 vehicles.

“Despite past production delays, parts shortages, labor cost overruns, and other difficulties, we expect Tesla to benefit from its dominant position in the electric vehicle industry and to improve performance in 2020 and beyond,” Selesky wrote in the note.

[Yahoo Finance Premium subscribers can download the full Argus Research note on Tesla. Click here to start your free trial.]

Also helping to boost the stock was a positive earnings report from Japanese electronics company Panasonic Corp. on Monday, which supplies batteries for Tesla. Panasonic’s unit producing batteries for the electric car-maker at their jointly operated plant in Reno, Nevada turned a profit in the last three months of 2019, pushing the company to an overall profit, it reported.

Other analysts, however, were more cautious on shares of Tesla after the stock’s extraordinary run-up, which has sent shares soaring more than 230% over the past six months.

Roth Capital Partners analyst Craig Irwin late last week reiterated a Sell rating on the stock but raised his price target to $350 from $249, saying he felt Tesla’s stock was “significantly overvalued” when it was still trading at the $581 per-share level. He cited risks including the potential for delays in manufacturing, ramping production at its Shanghai Gigafactory and cost escalation as it tries to meet its volume targets.

Eight Wall Street firms assigned Tesla shares a Buy or Buy-rating equivalent, 11 rated shares as Hold and 18 rated shares as Sell, according to Bloomberg data as of Tuesday morning.

Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck

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