Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock made an impressive 10% gain in one week. This comes on top of the stock’s stellar performance of 138% year-to-date.
But what drove this last week’s surge and can it happen again in September?
Tesla cut prices on some of its models
As China’s electric vehicle (EV) competition heats up, Tesla is forced to cut the prices of its Model S and Model X cars in an effort to boost sales. The company lowered the starting price of the Model S to 698,900 CN¥ from 754,900 CN¥ and to 738,000 CN¥ from 836,900 CN¥ for the Model X. These are the two models already produced in the Shanghai Gigafactory.
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This comes two weeks after Tesla had already slashed prices for the premium version of these two models, which aren’t built in China.
Tesla also cut prices on its full self-driving (FSD) software by $3,000 in the US, lowering the price to $12,000 from $15,000 and by CAD$3,500 in Canada, from $19,500 to $16,000.
Analysts are still bullish
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives looked at Tesla on a sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) basis on Friday. The SOTP valuation examines and tries to value the separate businesses within a company in an attempt to give a better price valuation of the stock.
Tesla’s separate businesses, in this case, are its supercharging network, where the company recently signed deals with several automakers to open up its charging network. The company has an AI it uses to train its FSD software, which is likely to turn Tesla vehicles into robotaxis. Tesla also sells battery storage products to consumers and utilities, a business that grew over 220% year-over-year in Q2.
Based on all of this, Ives rates Tesla a ‘Buy’ with a price target of $350 a share within the next 12 months, which is a 35% gain from the current price of $258.
Tesla stock technical analysis
Tesla’s stock price has already broken the resistance price level of $200, confirming the price reversal. However, the stock is now trading in an ascending channel, which typically breaks out on the bottom side.
Of course, we don’t know how long the price will trade in a channel until it breaks out on one side. This means we could see the price attempt to break above $300 in September, which is 16% above the current price.
If the stock breaks $300 and holds there, the next price target becomes $400, which is Tesla’s 2022 peak.
Tesla has outperformed the S&P 500’s 17% return year-to-date with a massive 138% return to investors.
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