There’s little doubt that electric vehicle stock Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) came out with a barn-burner when they brought out the Cybertruck. This bizarrely-shaped piece of automotive ephemera captured imaginations all over, even if it was to wonder how anyone could bring out a car that looked vaguely like a middle school geometry project. Yet, despite this, and despite the buzz it generated, Tesla is still down fractionally in Friday morning’s trading.
The Cybertruck is Tesla’s first new vehicle model in four years, and it’s got analysts humming, wondering just what in the world Tesla’s master plan actually is here. Is this just a test bed for something else? Is it really just a “quirky option” of an electric truck geared toward the well-heeled who want something distinctive in their electric cars? Analysts are already working up the hypotheticals, and some are getting interesting. Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas, for example, thinks that this is the start of a whole new business line, with Tesla taking cues from sports car makers, limiting production to keep artificial scarcity and an air of exclusivity in some of its brands.
Rising Popularity, Rising Threats?
After the recent United Auto Workers (UAW) strike at the Big Three legacy automakers, there were some who looked nervously at Tesla to wonder if it might be next. The same thought has likely occurred to Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, at one point or another because he’s already been working to prevent it. But he hasn’t been engaging in union-busting; rather, he’s been working to keep the environment so worthwhile for workers that a union isn’t necessary. “If Tesla gets unionized, it’s because we deserve it,” Musk noted. Musk further pointed out that he’s made millionaires out of his factory workers, which suggests the UAW might not have much room to work.
Is Tesla Stock a Good Buy?
Overall, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on TSLA stock based on 14 Buys, 13 Holds, and six Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 21.36% rally in its share price over the past year, the average TSLA price target of $247.29 per share implies 4.16% upside potential.
