Tesla stock rose early Friday after a couple of Wall Street actions. Baird upgraded shares and Goldman Sachs raised its price target, but not its rating, for shares of the electric-vehicle maker.
Baird analyst Ben Kallo raised his rating to Buy from Hold on Friday and increased his price target by 71%, to $548 from $320. There is a “physical AI inflection ahead,” he wrote.
While the car business has struggled lately, global sales in the first half of 2025 fell 13%, “the road ahead is chock-full of catalysts,” including expansion of Tesla’s robo-taxi service, unveiling of Tesla’s humanoid robot called Optimus, other “bots,” as well as growth in Tesla’s energy storage business.
AI-trained robots and self-driving cars are the physical AI revolution Kallo is referencing. His new price target values Tesla at 63 times estimated 2029 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda.
Separately, Goldman analyst Mark Delaney, on Thursday, raised his price target for Tesla stock to $395 from $300 on Thursday, but kept his Hold rating on shares.
One reason for Delaney’s rise is better-than-expected third-quarter vehicle deliveries. Delaney expects Tesla to sell 455,000 cars in the third quarter, better than the roughly 445,000 analyst consensus compiled by FactSet. Tesla sold about 384,000 cars in the second quarter. Third-quarter U.S. EV sales have picked up, with buyers rushing to beat the removal of the $7,500 federal purchase tax credit that goes away at the end of September.
Tesla stock was up 2.2% in morning trading.
Coming into Friday trading, Tesla stock was up 3% so far this year and up about 83% over the past 12 months. Shares snapped a seven-day winning streak on Thursday, during which the stock had gained about $79, or 23%.
A few things helped with gains, including CEO Elon Musk’s $1 billion stock purchase, which was disclosed on Monday. Wednesday’s gain was aided by the Federal Reserve, which cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point as expected. Car companies like lower interest rates. Many cars are financed, and lower rates equal lower monthly payments. The electric-vehicle maker also appears to be on the cusp of expanding its self-driving taxi service to Las Vegas. Tesla launched its long-awaited robo-taxi service in Austin, Texas, in June.
The average analyst price target for Tesla stock is about $334, according to FactSet, from $323 about a week ago, but still below where shares are trading.
It isn’t all that unusual for Tesla stock to trade above the consensus analyst price target. That isn’t typical for most stocks, however. About 10% of the stocks in the S&P 500 trade above average target prices. The average analyst price target for stocks in the S&P 500 implies an average gain of about 12%, according to FactSet. Implied upside varies by industry.
Analyst price targets can generally be read in one of two ways. The target is the price analysts expect shares to reach over the coming year. Or the target price is the fair price to pay to earn an appropriate return on the stock in the future.
Overall, 45% of analysts covering Tesla stock rate shares Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%.
