Tesla Shoots Past $500-Mark

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock shot up over 8% to over $500 on Monday, reaching $516.83 (+$38.67) by 2:30pm EST as bullish sentiment for the electric car manufacturer takes on a whole new level of bullishness.

The market cap for Tesla is now over $93 billion--close to that $100 billion threshold that would net Elon Musk a cool $346 million.  By comparison, this is larger than Ford and GM’s market cap combined.

Ford’s market cap is just under $37 billion, and GM’s is just under $50 billion.

Tesla’s stock would need to reach $554.80 for it to hit that $100 billion market cap level.

Musk’s executive pay package is thought to be the most generous on the planet, although he gets no salary or bonuses.

The surge comes hours after Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch increased his target for Tesla’s stock price to $612 per share on the grounds that the car company has now achieved “critical scale” that will allow Tesla to sustain positive free cash flow.

"We believe the company's risk tolerance, ability to implement learnings from past errors, and larger ambition than peers are beginning to pose an existential threat to transportation companies that are unable or unwilling to innovate at a faster pace," Rusch said in a Monday note to clients.

Tesla’s stock has risen from $334.40 since this time last year.

Also on Monday, Tesla said it’s full self-driving feature would be complete “soon” in what was another missed deadline for Elon Musk, who promised that the feature would be available at the end of 2019. Traders are, however, unconcerned with yet another of Musk’s missed deadlines, given the fact that prices have surged since the end of the year.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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