Tesla Inc became the first $100 billion publicly listed American automaker in extended trading on Tuesday, in a sign of Wall Street’s confidence in an all-electric future.
The milestone comes less than a month when Tesla’s stock crossed $420, the infamous price at which CEO Elon Musk had tweeted he would take the electric automaker 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 let it go under pressure from investors and regulatory concerns.
Tesla shares increased by 1.4% at $555 after the bell, building on a 7.2% gain during trading when brokerage New Street Research increased its price target to $800.
The company’s market value also puts Musk a step near to earning the first $346 million tranches of choices in a record-breaking pay package.
The $100 billion valuation would be required 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 purchase Tesla stock.
Tesla, which is already valued higher than Ford Motor and General Motors, has seen its stock more than double in the last three months, much because of a quarterly profit in October, news of production increase in its China factory and the results of annual car deliveries.
Recently, Tesla also reached a settlement with Michigan to allow it to directly deliver its vehicles to consumers in the state, as Michigan had earlier barred Tesla from directly delivering its vehicles in the state and Tesla had to file a lawsuit against the state.
