Investor's Corner
Tesla stock pushes another firm to boost price target with a Buy rating
Gianarikas raised Canaccord’s price target on Tesla shares up to $490 from $333, as the stock has been well above the latter number for some time.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) has pushed yet another Wall Street firm to boost its price target, but this time, shares have also held their ‘Buy’ rating, as Canaccord Genuity analyst George Gianarikas made both adjustments.
Gianarikas raised Canaccord’s price target on Tesla shares up to $490 from $333, as the stock has been well above the latter number for some time.
Shares are currently trading at around $443, and have not traded at $333 since the beginning of September. Tesla shares have increased by over 34 percent in the past month.
A new note written to investors from Gianarikas breaks down each division of the company and how it will contribute to Tesla’s overall growth through the next several quarters. Investors are certainly concerned about the removal of the $7,500 EV tax credit, but it’s important to note that Tesla is much more than an automotive stock play.
Affordable Models
Gianarikas notes that Canaccord expects higher deliveries this quarter, in part due to the removal of the tax credit, which will occur today.
The firm expects Tesla to offset the loss of the tax credit with the introduction of new, affordable models, something the company has stated it is working on and plans to introduce during the second half of this year.
Now, with just a quarter left in 2025, it seems Tesla plans to launch those models within the next three months. Canaccord said:
“…on the EV side, we expect more new models soon – as promised by management. These should help global sales momentum – and potentially help alleviate any post-3Q cliff in the US after EV tax credits go away. And these new vehicles should be interesting.”
Tesla Energy
The company’s Energy division is one that consistently flies under the radar and gets little attention. With an increase in data centers and the need for more power, Canaccord thinks this is where Tesla could see some true growth over the next few years:
“Fully using grid resources not only takes significant time and effort but is increasingly met with resistance from utilities and consumers as they express concerns about increasing power prices and impact on grid resiliency. Elon Musk himself used behind-the-meter solutions like methane gas turbines and generators in Memphis to build his xAI facility – although next time he should be careful not to pollute the environment when he does it. Energy storage will play a material role in behind-the-meter solutions.”
Elon Musk’s Comp Package
Locking up Musk for the next several years was a crucial part of keeping Tesla as a bullish stock play for many firms.
The new comp plan for CEO Elon Musk will benefit investors as well as the Tesla frontman, and although these tranches are challenging, they appear to be well within the realm of possibility.
“Those targets, if achieved, promise great returns for Tesla shareholders. Embedded in the upcoming shareholder vote is an opportunity for Tesla shareholders to potentially invest in xAI as well. Given Mr. Musk’s singular business achievements, we see his commitment to the company and bold targets as – mostly -a positive. $400B in EBITDA. Yowza. That’s one of Mr. Musk’s operational targets over a 10-year period and compares to ~$15B TTM as of 2Q25. Mr. Musk is who he is, and it is hard to underestimate him. But, a lot needs to go right for him to achieve it.”
Price Target and Rating
Gianarikas says there was a potential for a stock downgrade while mulling what forecast to put on Tesla shares, especially as the firm admits it “still struggles” with the valuation. Near-term, however, there are more catalysts than drawbacks.
With the affordable EVs presumably on the way, as well as plenty of momentum in Robotaxi and Optimus projects, Tesla is sitting in a good spot, especially from an investor perspective, Canaccord believes.
It ups its price target to $490 and reiterates its ‘Buy’ rating.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, jumping over 3 percent during the day and finishing at $489.88.
The price beats the previous record close, which was $479.86.
Shares have had a crazy year, dipping more than 40 percent from the start of the year. The stock then started to recover once again around late April, when its price started to climb back up from the low $200 level.
This week, Tesla started to climb toward its highest levels ever, as it was revealed on Sunday that the company was testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin. The spike in value pushed the company’s valuation to $1.63 trillion.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
It is the seventh-most valuable company on the market currently, trailing Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
Shares closed up $14.57 today, up over 3 percent.
The stock has gone through a lot this year, as previously mentioned. Shares tumbled in Q1 due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which pulled his attention away from his companies and left a major overhang on their valuations.
However, things started to rebound halfway through the year, and as the government started to phase out the $7,500 tax credit, demand spiked as consumers tried to take advantage of it.
Q3 deliveries were the highest in company history, and Tesla responded to the loss of the tax credit with the launch of the Model 3 and Model Y Standard.
Additionally, analysts have announced high expectations this week for the company on Wall Street as Robotaxi continues to be the focus. With autonomy within Tesla’s sights, things are moving in the direction of Robotaxi being a major catalyst for growth on the Street in the coming year.
Elon Musk
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs says.
Tesla is in the process of rolling out its Robotaxi platform to areas outside of Austin and the California Bay Area. It has plans to launch in five additional cities, including Houston, Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
However, the company’s expansion is not what the focus needs to be, according to Delaney. It’s the speed of deployment.
The analyst said:
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Profitability will come as the Robotaxi fleet expands. Making that money will be dependent on when Tesla can initiate rides in more areas, giving more customers access to the program.
There are some additional things that the company needs to make happen ahead of the major Robotaxi expansion, one of those things is launching driverless rides in Austin, the first city in which it launched the program.
This week, Tesla started testing driverless Robotaxi rides in Austin, as two different Model Y units were spotted with no occupants, a huge step in the company’s plans for the ride-sharing platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
CEO Elon Musk has been hoping to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis in Austin for several months, first mentioning the plan to have them out by the end of 2025 in September. He confirmed on Sunday that Tesla had officially removed vehicle occupants and started testing truly unsupervised rides.
Although Safety Monitors in Austin have been sitting in the passenger’s seat, they have still had the ability to override things in case of an emergency. After all, the ultimate goal was safety and avoiding any accidents or injuries.
Goldman Sachs reiterated its ‘Neutral’ rating and its $400 price target. Delaney said, “Tesla is making progress with its autonomous technology,” and recent developments make it evident that this is true.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets bold Robotaxi prediction from Wall Street firm
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a bold Robotaxi prediction from Morgan Stanley, which anticipates a dramatic increase in the size of the company’s autonomous ride-hailing suite in the coming years.
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Percoco dug into the Robotaxi fleet and its expansion in the coming years in his latest note, released on Tuesday. The firm expects Tesla to increase the Robotaxi fleet size to 1,000 vehicles in 2026. However, that’s small-scale compared to what they expect from Tesla in a decade.
Tesla expands Robotaxi app access once again, this time on a global scale
By 2035, Morgan Stanley believes there will be one million Robotaxis on the road across multiple cities, a major jump and a considerable fleet size. We assume this means the fleet of vehicles Tesla will operate internally, and not including passenger-owned vehicles that could be added through software updates.
He also listed three specific catalysts that investors should pay attention to, as these will represent the company being on track to achieve its Robotaxi dreams:
- Opening Robotaxi to the public without a Safety Monitor. Timing is unclear, but it appears that Tesla is getting closer by the day.
- Improvement in safety metrics without the Safety Monitor. Tesla’s ability to improve its safety metrics as it scales miles driven without the Safety Monitor is imperative as it looks to scale in new states and cities in 2026.
- Cybercab start of production, targeted for April 2026. Tesla’s Cybercab is a purpose-built vehicle (no steering wheel or pedals, only two seats) that is expected to be produced through its state-of-the-art unboxed manufacturing process, offering further cost reductions and thus accelerating adoption over time.
Robotaxi stands to be one of Tesla’s most significant revenue contributors, especially as the company plans to continue expanding its ride-hailing service across the world in the coming years.
Its current deployment strategy is controlled and conservative to avoid any drastic and potentially program-ruining incidents.
So far, the program, which is active in Austin and the California Bay Area, has been widely successful.
Tesla is not sparing any expense in ensuring the Cybercab is safe
Tesla’s Elon Musk gives timeframe for FSD’s release in UAE
