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The Ratings Game

Tesla stock heads for record close after Goldman Sachs upgrade

Goldman’s price target moves to $780, or 30% above its current price

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Tesla Inc. stock on Thursday flirted with another record close, boosted by an upgrade from analysts at Goldman Sachs.

Tesla shares TSLA, +3.90% traded more than 3% higher at around $589 a share in midday trading; a close around these levels would be the highest for the stock since Nov. 27, when it closed at a record $585.76.

The shares have broken more than 30 closing records this year, a seemingly unstoppable rally for a stock that’s now headed for inclusion in the S&P 500 index in less than 20 days.

See also: Tesla stock to be added all at once to S&P 500

Earlier Thursday, analysts at Goldman Sachs turned bullish on the stock, upgrading their rating to buy and saying that electric-vehicle adoption worldwide “is accelerating and will occur faster than our prior view,” thanks to falling battery prices improving the economics of owning an electric car.

They also upped their price target on Tesla shares to $780 from $455, implying 30% upside from Thursday prices.

Tesla’s “integrated model” and its ability “to offer a full ecosystem of products for consumers including solar, storage, and convenient access to fast charging will help it to sustain a leadership position in the EV market,” the Goldman analysts, led by Mark Delaney, said in their note.

Goldman had downgraded Tesla to neutral in June 2020 on concerns about a potential slowdown in demand. “This concern that we had about a 2H20 growth slowdown was incorrect,” they said in the note.

Related: Tesla’s market cap zooms past $500 billion

Tesla went on to beat their expectations in its last two quarterly earnings. “Going forward we expect the company to drive strong growth in Model Y sales as it ramps three new factories (Shanghai, Berlin and Austin), and we are also now more positive about the long-term opportunity in both automotive and energy,” they said.

Shares of Tesla have gained 600% this year, compared with gains of around 14% for the S&P 500 index. SPX, +0.05%

Meanwhile, shares of other EV makers were having a tougher time on Thursday, with XPeng Inc. dropping the most following a downgrade at UBS.

At last check, XPeng’s American depositary receipts XPEV, -4.33% were down nearly 6%, while Nio Inc. NIO, -2.71% ADRs were down 3% and Li Auto Inc. ADRs LI, -4.14% were down 4%.