TESLA’S ’SONIC BOOM

Battery a volt of confidence

Elon Musk’s Tesla party just won’t quit.

The electric-car maker’s already surging stock rose another 20 percent on Monday after Panasonic said that the car-battery factory it runs with Tesla has finally turned a profit.

Panasonic’s battery plant — which has been plagued with production issues and delays for years — said it’s eked out a quarterly profit for the first time thanks to Tesla’s large manufacturing push.

“By next year, we hope profits will stabilize,” Panasonic Chief Financial Officer Hirokazu Umeda said of the Nevada battery plant it operates with Tesla.

Panasonic’s earnings news came as a pair of analysts sharply raised their price targets for the stock, citing surging demand for Tesla’s vehicles.

The double dose of good tidings sent shares of the automaker past the $700 mark for the first time in its history, to an all-time high of $786.14 a share.

The stock, which is now up 86 percent this year, ended the day at $781, a rise of 20 percent.

“The move today was the sum of all these things,” CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson told The Post. “It’s just fueling the fire as far as the short squeeze goes.”

Argus Research raised its price target for shares of Tesla to $808 from $556, citing “continued revenue growth from the legacy Model S and Model X, as well as strong demand for the new Model 3.”

“Despite past production delays, parts shortages, labor cost overruns and other difficulties, we expect Tesla to benefit from its dominant position in the electric vehicle industry and to improve performance in 2020 and beyond.”

A research firm called ARK Invest, meanwhile, said late Friday it expects the stock to be worth at least $7,000 — and possibly as much as $15,000 — by 2024, adding there’s “a 25 percent probability” the shares will be at the upper end of that range by then.

Nelson told The Post that ARK’s five-year price target needs to be taken with “a huge grain of salt,” and that investors should take care not to be swept up in the “euphoria.”

“We think a pullback is overdue,” Nelson said. “In 12 months, we think the stock is going to be lower than where it is today.”

Shares of Tesla have been on a tear despite predictions for a decline by numerous short sellers last year.

The stock jumped more than 15 percent last week after the company delivered its second consecutive profitable quarter and said its Model Y compact SUV has begun “ahead of schedule.”

Monday’s stock surge makes Tesla the secondmost valuable car company in the world, with a $140.6 billion market capitalization that’s second only to Toyota’s.