Piper ups Tesla price target, remains top ‘buy-and-hold idea’

Piper Sandler raised the firm’s price target on Tesla (TSLA) to $500 from $315 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. The firm thinks investors are starting to appreciate Tesla’s potential in “real-world” artificial intelligence. As a results, portfolio managers “are more willing to entertain upside scenarios” for the stock, the analyst tells investors in a research note. That said, Piper believes the “long-term narrative often takes a back seat when current-year estimates are falling, and in this regard, the outlook is highly uncertain” for Tesla. Once Tesla fulfills its current launch pipeline, management’s focus will shift away from launching new cars, and toward popularizing full self-driving software, contends the firm. To reflect this, Piper is now modeling a contribution from full self-driving licensing. It values Tesla’s existing businesses at just below $300 per share, inclusive of full self-driving. Piper says it hasn’t attempted to forecast a contribution from Tesla’s “more ambiguous” artificial intelligence opportunities. It is clear, however, that Tesla’s thesis will ultimately depend on new-age opportunities like Optimus robots and neural-net-training-as-a-service, the analyst adds. The firm says that while Tesla’s first half of 2025 “may be choppy,” the stock remains its top “buy-and-hold idea.”