Wedbush Securities analyst and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) bull Dan Ives said on Sunday that he is raising the price target on the EV giant's stock from $400 to $515.
What Happened: "...we believe the Trump White House will be a 'total game changer' for the autonomous and AI story for Tesla and Musk over the coming years," Ives said in a post on social media platform X.
"Bull case is $650 for 2025. AI/autonomous opportunity is worth at least $1 trillion."
— Dan Ives (@DivesTech) December 15, 2024
Raising price target on Tesla to $515 as we believe the Trump White House will be a "total game changer" for the autonomous and AI story for Tesla and Musk over the coming years. Bull case is $650 for 2025. AI/autonomous opportunity is worth at least $1 trillion
Ives believes Tesla could touch a market cap of $2 trillion by 2025-end with the company's vision for autonomous driving finding a more concrete structure. Wedbush's current price target, however, assumes no value for the company's Optimus humanoid robot which Ives said "could be a major upside catalyst for the Tesla story."
We believe Tesla could reach a $2 trillion market cap by the end of 2025 as the company's autonomous vision starts to take shape. Importantly, our price target conservatively assumes no value today for Optimus which could be a major upside catalyst for the Tesla story
— Dan Ives (@DivesTech) December 15, 2024
Why It Matters: Tesla stock closed up 4.3% at $436.23 on Friday. The stock is up by around 76% year-to-date, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
33 analysts together have a consensus rating of "Buy" on Tesla. Brokerage Stifel gave Tesla a price target of $411 earlier this month while maintaining a "buy rating."
Many, including Ives, are hopeful that Musk's newly forged friendship with President-elect Donald Trump will enable a better environment for the deployment of autonomous vehicles while his other policies against EVs will harm smaller rival players, effectively reducing competition for Tesla.
Last week, it was reported that a trump transition team responsible for devising a 100-day strategy for automotive policy wants the incoming administration to abolish the requirement to report car crashes if advanced driver assistance or autonomous driving technologies are engaged within 30 seconds of impact. Tesla has been a critic of the requirement.
Musk's Tesla is developing a set of advanced driver assistance features called full self-driving with which it intends to enable vehicle autonomy in due time.
In November, it was also reported that Trump is planning to end the $7,500 consumer tax credit for purchasing EVs under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
"In my view, we should end all government subsidies, including those for EVs, oil and gas," Musk then wrote on X.
Check out more of Benzinga's Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.
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Image via Tesla
