Tesla Inc became the first $100 billion
publicly listed U.S. carmaker in extended trading on Tuesday the 21st
of January 2020, in a sign of Wall Street’s confidence in an all-electric
future.
The
milestone comes less than a month after Tesla’s stock crossed $420, the
infamous price at which Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk had tweeted he would
take the electric car maker private
Musk tweeted he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private
in August 2018, when its shares were trading in the mid-$330s, only to later
give up under investor pressure and regulatory concerns.
Tesla shares were last up 1.4% at $555 after the bell,
building on a 7.2% gain during trading when brokerage New Street Research
raised its price target to $800. Tesla’s market value also puts Musk a step
closer to earning the first $346 million tranche of options in a
record-breaking pay package. The $100 billion valuation needs to stay for both
a one-month and six-month average in order to trigger the vesting of the first
of 12 tranches of options granted to Musk to buy Tesla stock.
Tesla, which is already valued more than Ford Motor Co and
General Motors Co combined, has seen its stock more than double in the last
three months, fueled by a rare quarterly profit in October, news of production
ramp-up in its China factory and better-than-expected annual car deliveries. In
another win, Tesla reached a settlement with Michigan to allow it to directly
deliver its vehicles to customers in the state, a person familiar with the
agreement said on Tuesday.
