Tesla roars above $900 as solar sales light up prospects
Solar-power revenue may eventually rival electric-car sales
Telsa shares zoomed back above $900 on Wednesday after a Wall Street analyst awarded the stock one of its highest price targets yet.
The Palo Alto, California-based company's odds of success in the battery and solar-power industry prompted the investment bank Piper Sandler to set a 12-month price forecast of $928.
“After logging 53,448 miles and surviving four Minnesota winters (with no noticeable range degradation), we are convinced that Tesla's automotive products offer a superior ownership experience,” analyst Alexander Potter wrote while raising his price target from $729. “If history is any indication, we'll eventually be saying something similar about generating and storing our own solar power.”
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TSLA | TESLA INC. | 170.18 | +8.05 | +4.97% |
While batteries and solar power amounted to just 6 percent of Tesla’s sales in 2019, management has said its revenue will eventually rival that of the automotive business.
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Potter says it’s “tough to ignore” the size of the addressable market for Tesla’s integrated solar roof, which is about $165 billion a year. The market’s size increases by another $70 billion per year when taking into account the cost of two Powerwalls, the company's home batteries, for each new solar roof.
Wednesday’s gains have stretched Tesla’s year-to-date growth to more than 105 percent, putting extreme pressure on short-sellers, or traders betting that shares would fall.