Analyst says Tesla's annual deliveries may exceed target, shares could go as high as $1,000

With strong demand from the Chinese market, Tesla is not ruled out from exceeding its annual delivery target, which would support its share price to as high as $1,000, according to Wedbush Securities.

Tesla is undoubtedly one of the brightest US stocks this year, with a cumulative gain of 660% so far this year.

On December 2, Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating on Tesla from "Neutral" to "Buy" and raised its price target from $455 to $780, the highest price target given by a Wall Street investment bank at the time.

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The latest rating from Wedbush Securities further opens up the upside potential for Tesla shares.

In a recent report to clients, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said that strong demand from China could help Tesla meet or exceed its goal, once considered unattainable, of delivering a cumulative 500,000 Tesla cars by the end of 2020.

As a result, Ives sees Tesla's shares rising 56 percent from current levels to $1,000 per share in a bullish scenario.

Tesla's market capitalization has grown by more than $500 billion since 2020 and now exceeds the combined market capitalization of the world's nine largest automakers, even though its sales represent only a fraction of theirs.

Ives explained that Tesla's demand in China continues to be strong, and if that demand continues in December, Tesla is on track to exceed its target for deliveries this year. In November, Tesla sold about 22,000 Model 3s in China.

Ives said December remains a strong month for Tesla to continue its strong trajectory in China, which could be the tipping point that allows Marks and Tesla to meet or exceed their 500,000-unit annual delivery goal, an achievement that Wall Street did not even anticipate this spring and summer.

During its third-quarter earnings call this year, Tesla reiterated its goal of delivering 500,000 units by 2020, but some analysts at the time expressed skepticism that the company could meet that goal.

Ives said the China growth story is worth at least $100 per share in the Tesla bull scenario, as the penetration of such electric vehicles is set to increase significantly over the next 12 to 18 months.

In the meantime, significant battery innovation technology will emerge at Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory and elsewhere through China's electric vehicle supply chain, the analyst said.