Tesla Shares Rallying Following Wedbush Upgrade To Outperform

Shares of Tesla Motors

are up more than 4 percent Tuesday morning following an earlier upgrade from Wedbush's Craig Irwin. The analyst raised his investment recommendation on Tesla shares from Neutral to Outperform and boosted his price target from $180 to $240. Irwin cited, "a proprietary survey that supports higher Gen III expectations than our prior forecast, with good receptiveness of mainstream car buyers to purchase EVs, and generally realistic expectations around vehicle performance and costs." The survey showed stronger-than-expected mass market appeal within the $35-45k price range. "...over 20% of respondents indicated they would absolutely consider driving an EV (vs. 65% maybes), and 19% were willing to pay a $5,000 or greater premium for a 90% improvement in fuel economy." The Wedbush analyst is looking for "clusters of catalysts" related to possible new plants in both Europe and Asia. He also suggested more details on the Model X could "drive the stock." Irwin called momentum in the Model S "impressive." 2013 and 2014 delivery forecasts were raised, as were 2017 estimates for Gen III units, the note from Irwin showed. With Tesla shares last trading at $187.98, Wedbush's new price target represents potential upside of about 28 percent.