Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is miles ahead of other car manufacturers in the electric vehicle race, Morgan Stanley said as it hiked its price target for shares.
Analysts maintained their 'buy' recommendation and lifted their share price target to US$1,300 for the Elon Musk-led company, from the previous US$1,200 and compared to last night's close price of just over $1,058.
Analyst Adam Jonas said the new price target, which values Tesla at around US$1.3 trillion is justified by Tesla's head-start on the competition.
“Think of the EV race as a marathon,” Jonas said in a note to clients overnight.
“Tesla is in the lead at mile number 21. Everybody else is at mile 2 or still tying their shoes.”
Tesla's stock price topped US$1,240 in early November and after a sharp drop in the subsequent weeks, came close to that mark on the back of the delivery numbers at the start of this month.
These showed 309,000 vehicles were shipped to customers in the fourth quarter of the year and that the company delivered more than 936,000 EVs globally in 2021, up from nearly half a million the previous year.