Tesla Rallies 40% in One Week as Investors Can't Get Enough

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By Christiana Sciaudone

Investing.com -- Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has rallied almost 40% over the past week. Why? It's 2020, why not?

To be fair, Tesla said a week ago that its board of directors had approved a five-for-one stock split to make ownership more accessible -- that goes into effect Aug. 31.

But going back farther, shares of the electric car maker have more than quadrupled for the year, and are up more than 3% on Tuesday.

While investors seem like they can't get enough, most analysts appear to be more cautious. Just four analysts have a buy rating on Tesla shares, while 13 say hold and 11 say sell. The average price target of $1,242.69 is about 16% lower than the current trading level.

On the face of it, recent news hasn't been much to celebrate. Tesla's new-car registrations in China fell month-over-month in July, with 11,456 vehicles registered in July, compared to 15,000 in June, according to Bloomberg.

But it's notable that the numbers have not been coming in with regularity this year: Registrations in China totaled more than 12,000 in March; 5,000 in April; and 11,000 in May. On top of that, the electric vehicle market in China is expected to see a compound annual growth rate of more than 30% from 2020 to 2028, according to Research Nester.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives sees demand in China accelerating already in July and August, Barron's reported. In the third quarter, Tesla "has seen strong demand in Europe and China with the U.S. market remaining softer," Ives said in a report on Monday.

There's plenty of competition, though, from old and new rivals. Canoo is the most recent company to go public. Canoo will use a membership model to sell its electric vehicles and will go public after it merges with Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp IV Class A (NASDAQ:HCAC), a “blank-check” special purpose acquisition company created to finance a merger that often leads to an IPO, CNBC reported. Canoo will list with Nasdaq under the ticker CNOO. That will make it the fourth EV company to go public via a SPAC since March.

SoftBank may also have given the stock a boost when its new asset management unit reported a $123 million stake in Tesla, according to an SEC filing published Monday.