Why Canaccord Genuity Is Now Tesla's Biggest Bull

Cars and Drivers

Published: January 2, 2020 1:20 pm

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 11:38 am

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares have absolutely exploded in the past six months, and the cult of Elon Musk is growing. Some think that this is in part because the founder and CEO is staying off Twitter, but this is also due to many exciting developments from Tesla recently, including the Cybertruck.

A looking at the charts shows Tesla shares up about 86% in the past six months and 71% in the past three months. Many think the stock will continue its meteoric rise from here.

Canaccord Genuity is officially the biggest bull for Tesla after its most recent call. Wall Street has a consensus target of $299, and Canaccord Genuity has just come out with a Buy rating and a $515 price target, about 70% higher than the consensus.

Essentially, the brokerage firm believes that the trend toward electrification will only accelerate in 2020. Canaccord Genuity expects to get a glimpse of this next week when Tesla reports its delivery numbers for the fourth quarter, which it anticipates to be well above the guidance of 360,000 units for 2019.

In the report, Canaccord Genuity said:

While bears have feared demand issues as a function of tax credit expiration for Tesla, we suspect a solid Q4 combined with the robust Q3 should put these fears to rest and put to rest this issue as the credit expires. To this end we note the outpaced sales of model 3 EVs compared to luxury compact sales with a greater than 3 to 1 ratio.

Also, as Model 3s roll off Tesla’s Chinese manufacturing facility with local subsidies intact, the firm believes the U.S.-based focus will need to shift globally for the company. With deliveries beginning in China at the end of December, this market will be an important driver for the company in 2020.

Tesla previously secured funding for China’s Gigafactory and demonstrated increased profitability. As a result, Canaccord Genuity believes investor focus in 2020 will be squarely on the greater electric vehicle (EV) opportunity.

Separately, a recent patent filing by Tesla for a new battery chemistry illustrates how the company continues to push advances in all areas of EVs. This is likely to highlight the rationale behind the Maxwell acquisition and demonstrate further separation from the competition in terms of vehicle range.

Canaccord Genuity concluded by saying:

For 2020, Tesla is set to introduce the Model Y – for investors the key will be the shared platform (roughly 75% of components with Model 3 vs Model S and X, which share less than 25%), and refreshes on the S and X. Simply put we see strong momentum at Tesla as we enter this new year.

Shares of Tesla traded up about 2% to $426.40 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $176.99 to $435.31. The consensus price target is $299.00.

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