Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) saw a massive upgrade early on Monday, and this could be another step in pushing this electric vehicle company toward a $1 trillion market cap.

Currently, Tesla boasts a market cap of $752 billion and ranks as the sixth-largest public company in the world. The only companies ahead of it are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook. Not a bad club to be in.

In terms of the upgrade, Piper Sandler assumed the role of the biggest bull and raised its price target on the stock to a street-high $1,200 from $515. That would imply upside of 51% from the most recent closing price of $793.53. This implied upside is more than enough to reach the $1 trillion mark.

Piper Sandler also noted that Tesla could have new opportunities to pursue for decades due to its target industries currently embracing outdated business models.

Excluding Monday’s move, Tesla stock had vastly outperformed the broad markets with a gain of about 519% in the past 52 weeks. Year to date, the share price was up only 12.5%.

For comparison, other recent analyst calls in the month of January were a lot more bearish:

• Roth Capital reiterated a Neutral rating with a $150 price target on January 28.
• Credit Suisse reiterated a Neutral rating, also on January 28.
• JPMorgan reiterated it as Underweight but raised its target to $135 from $125 on January 28.
• JMP Securities downgraded it to Market Perform from Outperform on January 28.
• Edward Jones initiated coverage with a Hold rating back on January 13.
• RBC upgraded the stock to a Sector Perform from Underperform on January 7.

Tesla stock traded up 2.6% on Monday to $814.06, in a 52-week range of $70.10 to $900.40. The consensus price target is $553.66.

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