Tesla’s Unbelievable Stock Growth, The Gift That Keeps On Giving

There’s one thing I want to find under my tree this year, and it’s more Tesla shares (NASDAQ:TSLA).

Tesla surged 500% this year alone and even sparked rumors of Warren Buffet investing in the company.

Furthermore, CEO Elon Musk announced an upcoming software update for its “full self-driving” beta technology. Musk wrote on Twitter, “Next week’s [software] release is special.” There will be a lot of “fundamental improvements, both important bug fixes & entire new areas of functionality.”

Tesla holiday software release is 🔥🔥

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2020

Will Growth Continue?

There are arguments on both sides.

Todd Gordon, founder of TradingAnalysis.com, spoke with CNBC’s “Trading Nation” about his bullish predictions for Tesla:

“If you look at the forward earnings, we’re trading 100 times next year’s earnings and granted, that’s a lot. Trust me, I understand. But I think what people are missing… I think the pricing mechanism of the market is becoming more efficient. It’s hard to put a fundamental valuation and justify what’s happening on Tesla now because markets are getting smarter and they’re pricing the CEO and the visions of the CEO.”

Gordon is the Tesla stock Nostradamus. He bet the stock reaching $500 back in October, with a Nov. 20 expiration. Now, he’s calling $600 by the end of Jan. 15.

Morgan Stanley spearheaded the bullish predictions earlier last week for Tesla when they gave the company an overweight rating for the first time in more than three years. The financial institution predicts that Elon Musk’s firm is on the verge of a “profound model shift” from selling cars to generating high-margin software and services revenue.

“To only value Tesla on car sales alone ignores the multiple businesses embedded within the company,” analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a note as he upgraded the shares from equal-weight and raised his price target by 50% to $540.

However, not everyone is so bullish on Tesla. MarketWatch.com columnist Jeff Reeves thinks the company is struggling to maintain EV superiority as Volkswagon, BMW, and GM nip away at Tesla’s market share.

“The early story of Tesla was that this stock was an innovative first-mover into the EV marketplace,” said Reeves. “But now that it’s more mature and consistently profitable, the challenge switches to fending off the competition and maintaining brand dominance and pricing power.”