Tesla stock is like rain in Florida or the weather in Michigan — just wait a bit, it’ll change.
After a few days of hits due to revelations about more Autopilot-related accidents and investigations of 27 crashes by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the stock jumped up nearly 6% to $691.56 in late afternoon trading.
The rally came on the wings of a very bullish report from Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood, saying she expected the stock to rise to $3,000 a share by 2025. The stock was trading as low as $629.80 on March 18 when the report was issued. However, the excitement faded late in the day, giving back much of what it earned, dropping into the low $670 range near the end of the session.
Running like bulls in Spain
Ark’s report also suggested the company’s annual revenue would come in between $234 billion and $367 billion during the same timeframe. The company reported $31.5 billion for 2020 — a 28% increase over the year-ago period.
The Ark Innovation exchange traded fund owns Tesla shares worth close to $2.5 billion. Tesla accounts for about 10% of the $24 billion Ark Innovation fund, making it the fund’s largest investment, Reuters noted.
Tesla is down more than 20% from its January record high but up around 700% over the past 12 months. If it does hit Ark’s predicted price, it would make the company worth about $3 trillion — or likely worth more than every other automaker combined several times over.
Perhaps even more interesting is that Ark’s modeling offers up a “bearish” result as well: $1,500 a share. Regardless, the investment group believes Tesla can sell between 5 million and 10 million vehicles in 2025. This takes into account the completion of the EV maker’s new Gigafactories in Germany and the U.S. as well as improvements to its manufacturing processes and technology. The company built about 500,000 vehicles last year.
Negative news
The new report was a welcome upgrade for the EV maker as the news surrounding it prior to that wasn’t good. NHTSA was actively investigating 23 crashes of Tesla vehicles, and closing out queries into four collisions that occurred in recent weeks.
The safety agency said Friday it was sending investigators to Houston to look into a crash there. This was after it sent a team to Michigan to probe two crashes in that state, including one where a Tesla reportedly in Autopilot mode crashed into a parked Michigan State Police vehicle. The incident occurred near Lansing and no one was injured, according to Reuters.
That investigation came after it sent a team to look into a collision where a Tesla got wedged under a tractor-trailer. One of the passengers was hospitalized and in critical condition last week. However, the Detroit Police Department said they do not believe Autopilot played a role in the incident.
In series of investigations comes as CEO Elon Musk announced the company was expanding access to the company’s full self-driving beta test, adding 2,000 more vehicle owners. He also noted that some earlier testers were pulled from the program for not following the safety rules.
