Tesla sets a historical high for the first time in three years! Wall Street significantly raises its target, and Musk becomes the world's richest person with a net worth exceeding $400 billion

In the past week, Tesla's stock surged, with several major Wall Street firms raising their target prices, marking the first time in three years that Tesla's stock price reached a historic high. CEO Elon Musk's wealth further increased, setting a new record for the highest personal assets of the world's richest person.

On December 11th, Wednesday, Eastern Time, Tesla's stock price accelerated upward during the midday trading session, reaching as high as $424.88 in the closing moments, up about 6% intraday, hitting an intraday historic high, and ultimately closing up over 5.9%, marking six consecutive days of gains and breaking the closing record set on November 4, 2021.

Goldman Sachs Raises Target Price by 38%, Long-term Bearish Analyst Irwin Raises by 347%

Wall Street Watch noted that before Tesla's further rise on Wednesday, Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney had just raised Tesla's target price from $250 to $345, an increase of 38%, while maintaining a neutral rating on Tesla. Although Delaney's revised target price is still significantly lower than Tesla's closing price of over $400 on Tuesday, his report, like those from other institutions, is optimistic about the positive impact of autonomous driving and robotics technology applications on Tesla's stock price.

In his latest report, Delaney wrote that Goldman Sachs believes Tesla is leading in platform and power sectors, as well as in the broader clean mobility sector (including electric vehicles, energy storage, software, and charging). At the same time, Goldman Sachs believes that Tesla will face headwinds in its core automotive business in the short to medium term, influenced by factors such as a slowdown in global electric vehicle demand growth and pricing pressures.

Delaney and other Goldman Sachs analysts believe that given the growing market interest in potential artificial intelligence (AI) beneficiaries, Tesla's stock may still maintain a high price-to-earnings ratio, reflecting long-term opportunities related to Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology or robotics.

Prior to Goldman Sachs, other Wall Street firms also raised Tesla's target price in the past week. Morgan Stanley raised its target price from $310 by 29% to $400, maintaining an overweight rating, while Cantor Fitzgerald significantly raised its target price by 43% to $365, maintaining a neutral rating. Morgan Stanley's analysts listed Tesla as their top pick, stating that strong sales momentum will help Tesla set a new record in China in the fourth quarter.

Last week, Bank of America's analyst John Murph became more optimistic about the stock price after visiting Tesla's Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, raising the target price by 14.3% to $400, which is at the high end of Wall Street analysts' expectations. Murph expressed confidence in Tesla's growth prospects for next year and beyond, stating that Tesla's autonomous driving and robotics business will lead growth, with significant progress in FSD, increasing adoption rates, and expected acceleration in Optimus development, while new models next year will expand the total addressable market (TAM) Last week, Craig Irwin, an analyst at Roth MKM who had long been bearish on Tesla, changed his stance, upgrading the rating from neutral to buy and significantly raising the target price by 347%, from $85 to $380. Irwin stated that he did not see many negative catalysts for Tesla, but rather many positive catalysts, and that the current trend is upward, not downward. He also mentioned that Tesla's stock price is reacting to the Trump effect.

Musk Sets New Record for Personal Wealth as World's Richest

With the rise in Tesla's stock price, Musk's personal wealth has further expanded. On Wednesday, during intraday trading, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed that Musk's net worth exceeded $400 billion, making him the first person in the world to surpass the $400 billion mark, setting a new record for personal assets as the world's richest.

As a major contributor to Trump's election as president, Musk's companies saw a general surge in valuation after the election. Since the election day on November 5, as of Wednesday's close, Tesla's stock price has cumulatively risen about 69%.

Analysts value Musk for his potential influence on future U.S. government decisions due to his close relationship with Trump. Musk stated during Tesla's third-quarter earnings call in October that he intends to leverage his influence with Trump to establish a "federal approval process for autonomous vehicles." Currently, approvals are handled at the state level.

On the first day after the election, November 6, Dan Ives, an analyst at investment bank Wedbush and a "die-hard fan" of Musk, openly expressed his optimism for Musk and Tesla, stating that "the biggest beneficiary of Trump's victory will be Tesla/Musk."

At the same time, Wedbush analysts raised Tesla's target price from $300 to $400, stating that this is because "they believe Trump's presidency will change Tesla and Musk's autonomous driving and AI narrative in the coming years."

Documents submitted to regulators show that Musk holds over 411 million shares of Tesla stock and about 304 million performance-based stock options. Tesla stock and options account for about three-quarters of his personal wealth. He also holds significant stakes in SpaceX, social media platform X, and AI startup xAI.

According to Bloomberg, recent stock sales by SpaceX insiders alone have increased Musk's net worth by about $50 billion, bringing it to $439.2 billion. On Wednesday, SpaceX and its investors agreed to purchase $1.25 billion worth of company stock from insiders such as employees, resulting in a valuation of approximately $350 billion for SpaceX, making it the highest-valued private startup in the world