Elon Musk hugs Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, on October 5, 2024.
Anna Moneymaker Getty Images
Tesla shares rose 6% on Friday, continuing to ride the postelection rally as President-elect Trump, closely allied with CEO Elon Musk, began to prepare the presidential cabinet.
Analysts at Wedbush reiterated their “outperform” rating on the stock, joining the warm outlook before responding to Tuesday’s results. Tesla recently regained its $1 trillion market cap after rising nearly 30% last week.
“We raised our price target on Tesla to $400 from $300 because we believe that the victory of the Trump White House will be a gamechanger for the autonomous and AI story for Tesla and Musk in the coming years,” Wedbush analysts wrote.
Musk’s wealth has increased by more than $300 billion in the days since Trump’s decisive election win, further cementing his place as the world’s richest man and joining a wave of gains in the technology and crypto sectors since post-election trading began.
It is unclear whether Musk, who spent at least $130 million on Trump’s campaign, will receive an official title in Trump’s second White House or will influence policy decisions from his inner circle.
Either way, Musk stands to gain potentially billions from new government contracts with these companies, on top of the $19 billion SpaceX has already been awarded. Some or all of the 19 federal lawsuits and ongoing investigations into the company may be dropped.
“It’s hard to judge how Elon Musk’s growing public relations with President Trump could benefit Tesla, but this should be closely monitored,” Bank of America analysts wrote in a note last week, raising their price target on TSLA from $265 to $ 350. .
Trump has previously said he may cut the $7,500 federal electric vehicle tax credit, and those credits have historically helped boost sales of Tesla vehicles.
At one of his last campaign rallies, Trump suggested Musk could be tasked with “government efficiency,” and he was on Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy two days ago.
— CNBC’s Michael Bloom, Annie Palmer and Lora Kolodny contributed reporting.
