Shares of Tesla Inc. shot up 7.0% in premarket trading Wednesday, after Piper Sandler's Alexander Potter boosted his price target by enough to become the most bullish analyst on Wall Street. The electric vehicle maker's stock was on track to open above the Feb. 4 record closing price of $887.06. Potter reiterated the overweight rating he's had on Tesla for at least the past three years, while raising his stock price target to $928 from $729, which is now the highest among the 31 analysts surveyed by FactSet, and the only one above the $900 level. Potter said he believes Tesla's success depends on making products that consumers find desirable. The next phase for growth is for consumers not just to buy a Tesla EV, but to generate and store one's own solar power to charge it, using Tesla's batteries and solar power products. "In order to gauge Tesla's chances of success, we recently installed a solar system to use for charging a Model X," Potter wrote in a note to clients. "The results have been illuminating so far, and we're upping our [price target] accordingly to $928 from $729." The stock has more than doubled (up 105%) year to date through Tuesday, while the S&P 500 has gained 4.3%.
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