Tesla gains after new price hikes, end of Twitter distraction boost sentiment
Justin Sullivan
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) zoomed higher in early trading on Friday after the electric vehicle maker lifted prices once again in the U.S. and as investors digested the news that Elon Musk will hand off the CEO duties of Twitter.
The price increases from Tesla (TSLA) covered all vehicles with the exception of the Model 3 and ran as high as $1,000. The recent pricing moves will help with margin expectations for Q2 and could boost investor sentiment. However, the base prices for the Model Y, Model S, and Model X are still notably below where they stood at the beginning of 2023.
Earlier this week, Piper Sandler noted longer wait times for Tesla (TSLA) vehicles may be an indication that demand has improved since the beginning of the year. "Wait times also reflect Tesla's production rate, as well as market-wide demand for cars of all kinds. But regardless, we think this uptick will be interpreted favorably," updated analyst Alexander Potter.
On the Twitter distraction front, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives called Elon Musk leaving CEO of Twitter earlier than originally thought a positive development for company as well as for SpaceX (SPACE).
Ives and team believe the development adds roughly $15 per share to the Tesla story as the Musk-Twitter CEO overhang is now gone. Wedbush Securities maintained an Outperform rating on TSLA on the view the news is a major step forward with Musk finally reading the room around the Twitter "nightmare."
Shares of Tesla (TSLA) were up 2.22% in premarket action on Friday to $175.96 vs. the 52-week trading range of $101.81 to $314.67.
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