Tesla Stock Soars as Ben Kallo Turns Bullish With Street-High Price Target

Tesla shares surge after Baird analyst Ben Kallo flips to bullish stance—issuing the highest price target on Wall Street.

The Analyst U-Turn

Kallo's reversal sends shockwaves through trading floors. The veteran analyst upgrades Tesla from neutral to outperform, betting big on Elon Musk's electric vehicle empire.

Street-High Confidence

Baird's new target towers above competitor projections. The bold call suggests massive upside potential—if Tesla delivers on its ambitious growth targets.

Market Impact

Tesla's trading volume spikes 150% following the announcement. Short sellers scramble while institutional investors reposition portfolios.

Because nothing moves markets like one analyst changing their mind after quarters of hesitation—the financial equivalent of finally noticing the elephant in the room.

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Ordinarily, such warnings would spook Wall Street and send investors running for the exit gates. Yet Tesla has proven to be an exception. While the stock has suffered at times this year, it has ultimately brushed away the concerns and tilted into the green, climbing 53% higher over the past 6 months.

That resilience speaks to something bigger than the quarterly numbers. Musk – along with a cohort of market watchers – has often stressed that Tesla’s ambitions stretch far beyond simply being a car maker, a narrative that has become even more pronounced as the Core EV business has struggled.

Investors have clearly bought into that broader vision, and now Baird analyst Ben Kallo appears to be doing the same.

“We underestimated the look-through in the CORE Automotive business,” says the analyst, pointing to the stock’s recent success in spite of the lackluster quarterly showings. “Maintaining our view that volumes will likely decline again in full-year 2025 and near-term fundamentals will be choppy, we now expect shares to Outperform as TSLA is increasingly viewed as the leader in physical AI,” Kallo further said.

From his perspective, the story is now being driven by a slate of forward-looking catalysts – everything from the reveal of the next-generation Optimus to new robotaxi markets, the Tesla Semi, a lower-cost vehicle, broader adoption of Dojo, and expansion in the Energy business. Looming large among these is the shareholder-approved compensation plan that directly ties Musk’s incentives to hitting unprecedented milestones.

The plan involves a $1 trillion pay package linked to Tesla reaching a market cap as high as $8.5 trillion, delivering 20 million vehicles, producing 1 million robots and robotaxis, hitting 10 million FSD subscriptions, and pushing adjusted EBITDA as high as $400 billion.

Kallo runs the math on what those goals could mean. In the minimum scenario, hitting the base milestones by 2035 WOULD put Tesla’s market cap around $5.5 trillion and shares at about $1,412 after dilution. In a more bullish case – doubling the volumes – the company could approach a $12 trillion valuation with shares near $3,043.

On that basis, Kallo sees justification for an upgrade. The analyst lifts his rating on TSLA from Neutral to Outperform (i.e., Buy) and boosts his price target from $320 to a Street-high $548, implying another ~29% upside in the months ahead. (To watch Kallo’s track record, click here)

Consensus on Wall Street, however, remains divided. While 14 other analysts join Kallo in the bull camp, there are still 12 Holds and 8 Sells, all coalescing into a Hold (i.e., Neutral) consensus rating. The $329.77 average price target points to a one-year decline of 22.5%, underscoring just how polarizing Tesla stock remains. (See)

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