Tesla’s market cap is now bigger than Ford’s was at its peak - MarketWatch

Tesla Inc. is as big as peak Ford Motor Co., with the Silicon Valley electric-car maker stock closing at a record on Tuesday and on its way to another on Wednesday.

Tesla TSLA, +4.17% shares rose 3.9% to end at a record $469.06 on Tuesday, the latest in a series of ever-climbing notches that stretch back to mid-December. The shares traded as high as $475.81 on Wednesday amid small gains for equity markets.

Tesla’s market capitalization has zoomed above $82 billion, beating Ford’s at its valuation peak — a market cap of $80.8 billion in 1999, the same year Tesla’s Chief Executive Elon Musk founded a couple of tech companies, including the one that would later become PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL, +2.10% In today’s dollars, Ford’s 1999 valuation would be the equivalent of about $124 billion.

Tesla has been the No. 1 U.S. auto maker in terms of market value off and on in the recent past, but it is the first time its market cap has topped Ford’s F, -0.21% at its highest valuation. Ford is currently valued at more than $36 billion, and General Motors Co. GM, -1.54% is valued at $50 billion.

Tesla’s stock rally got a boost last week when the company reported above-expectations fourth-quarter deliveries, its proxy for sales.

By Tuesday morning, Musk made meme-ready waves by pulling some dance moves while heralding a “very exciting future” for Tesla in China to the tune of “More Than You Know” by Axwell Ingrosso.

Tesla was showcasing the delivery of the first Model 3 sedans made at the company’s plant in the Shanghai area.

Investors do not yet know the date of Tesla’s reporting fourth-quarter results, expected for late January or early February.

Analysts polled by FactSet expect the car maker to report an adjusted profit of $1.53 a share on sales of $6.9 billion. That would compare with fourth-quarter 2018 profit of $1.93 a share on sales of $7.2 billion.

Later Tuesday, analyst Bill Selesky of Argus Research raised his price target on Tesla shares to $556, among the highest on Wall Street.

Tesla shares have gained 41% in the past 12 months, compared with advances of 26% and 20% for the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.64% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. DJIA, +0.71%

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