Tesla hits record high as shares surpass $1,000
Stock price surges almost 9% on reports of new electric semi-truck production
Tesla was a star on Wall Street, Wednesday, as investors threw their weight behind the electric carmarker and drove its share price to a record high, and close above $1,000 for the first time in the company’s history.
Tesla shares surged almost 9%, to an all-time high close of $1,025.05. Enthusiasm for Tesla was stoked by a report from Reuters which cited a memo to company employees from Chief Executive Elon Musk in which
Musk said the company was ready to begin “volume production” of its electric semi truck.
Tesla debuted its electric semi in 2017, but has only produced a limited number of the trucks. In his memo, Musk said Tesla had been working on improving the semi’s design and now it was “time to go all out and bring the Tesla Semi to volume production.” Musk also said the semi truck’s batteries and powertrain would be built at the company’s gigafactory in Nevada, with other vehicle parts being built in other states.
Last month, Tesla said on its quarterly conference call that it was halting production of its semi truck, and wouldn’t go into full-scale production until 2021.
“Hitting the $1,000 threshold speaks to the confidence the Street has in Musk and company over the next year to further penetrate the massive electric vehicle opportunity despite COVID-19 headwinds,” said Dan Ives, managing director of Wedbush Securities. “The semi production news is another shot in the arm.”
Tesla shares have more than doubled this year, after finishing 2019 at $420.08 a piece. The stock was down to $350.51 a share on March 18, when shelter-in-place orders meant to slow the spread of coronavirus around the region went into effect.
With its gains, Tesla joined a rare club of companies with share prices of $1,000 or more. Among those are Google parent company Alphabet, which traded Wednesday at $1,459.72 a share, and Amazon, which was at $2,653.41 a share.