Tesla stock price target boosted to $2,000 by Wedbush, making it the highest among FactSet analysts

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives raised his stock price target for Telsa Inc. to $2,000 from $1,250 on Friday, making it the highest among analysts on FactSet. "We believe with demand for Model 3's ramping stronger than expectations in China heading into the summer timeframe, the lockdown easing in the US/Europe, and some potentially "game changing" battery developments on the horizon (Battery Day another key catalyst) that Tesla's stock likely has room to run further," Ives wrote in a note to clients. The move comes a day after Tesla stock closed at a fresh record of $1,133.36, boosting its valuation to more than $207 billion and above, at least for now, Japan's Toyota Motor Corp.'s TM, -1.18% $203 billion market value. Toyota, which makes more than 8 million vehicles a year, long has been the No. 1 global car maker by market capitalization. Tesla is expected to report second-quarter sales this week, with analysts polled by FactSet expecting the sale of 72,000 vehicles in the quarter, of which 61,000 are Model 3s. "While the stock has been roaring higher, we believe the main fundamental catalyst continues to be the massive China market which is showing clear signs of a spike in demand for Musk & Co. heading into the rest of this year," Ives wrote. The analyst is expecting Tesla to reporter stronger second-quarter deliveries than the market is expecting, and could hit 450,000 for the year. Tesla shares jumped another 6.5% premarket to bring its year-to-date gain to 168%, while the S&P 500 has fallen 3.6%.

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