By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com - Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares jumped more than 9% in early trading Tuesday, breaking their five-day losing streak on an optimistic analyst note that puts a price target at $900.
New Street Research analyst Pierre Ferragu also put a 'buy' on the stock. His $900 price target is almost 50% higher than its current trading level of $614. It is the first time since last March that the Street's average price target is higher than Tesla's actual stock price, but just barely.
Tesla shares had been on a bull run that catapulted founder Elon Muck to the top of the world's richest people, but the company's announcement last month that it had invested $1.5 billion in (Bitcoin) put an end to that run up.
After peaking around $900 billion, Tesla's market cap dropped more than 40%, and then there was more bad news. Last month, a parts shortage forced the company to halt production at a California plant.
Recent developments point out to challenging times for the automobile market disruptor. Tesla recently admitted to California's Department of Motor Vehicles that its City Streets autonomous driving software will not be fully self-driving.
Also, Japan's Honda Motor Co Ltd ADR (NYSE:HMC) beat Tesla to market, introducing a limited edition level-3 autonomous sedan in its home market. The level-3 autonomous technology liberates the driver from constantly monitoring the system though it requires them to take over when alerted by the machine.