
So Government Motors stock is mirroring an electric vehicle stock, with shares going apeshit after a Thursday upgrade. Argus Research analyst William Selesky believes the company’s pivot into EVs will work. He upgraded General Motors [GM] stock to Buy from Hold and set a target price at $56 a share. Selesky didn’t have a target price on GM stock before the upgrade.
Business is booming for GM these days, he wrote, as its balance sheet is strong and profit margins in its U.S. business are flourishing. Even so, Selesky thinks investors are minimizing the company’s Chinese joint venture, as well as its finance unit and Ultium battery business. He now predicts GM reporting about $5.89 a share in 2021, up from his prior forecast of $5.39. NIO Rolls Out a New EV

The auto company’s shares have been red hot as of late, up more than 60% since November. (Tesla [$TSLA] stock is up more than 80% in that time; normal?). Analysts and investors are starting to believe in the company’s EV strategy. GM CEO Mary Barra has spent a lot of time this past year articulating the strategy, which involves billions of investment in coming years resulting in dozens of new battery-powered electric vehicles.
The recent stock runup has flipped the script on the company’s performance under Barra’s term as chief. GM stock has now returned about 16% per year under her tenure, a wee bit better than the market over the same span. About 60% of the total return has come in the past three months. Here’s Why Plug Power Has Gone Parabolic Since June
Thursday’s rally leaves GM stock on pace for another record-setting close. Shares recently cruised past their 2017 record on Tuesday, after Barra spoke at the 2021 Consumer Electronic Show. To be sure, that record only includes the past decade, the period of time GM has been public since it rearranged its debts in bankruptcy in late 2009.

GM stock is up almost 20% so far this week. Shares popped more than 6% after Barra’s CES talk where she illustrated, again, the company’s electrification as well as autonomous driving efforts. After that, analyst upgrades took over as the main reason for further share price gains, as Selesky’s upgrade is the second in just days. On Wednesday, Normua analyst Anindya Das bumped shares up to Buy and set his target price at $60 a share.
Overall, Wall Street is yugely bullish on GM stock. With Thursday’s upgrade, 19 out of 20 analysts rate shares Buy. That’s 95%, is that good? The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the Dow Jones is about 57%. The average analyst price target is about $55 a share, roughly 7% above recent levels, despite the monster three-month rally in the stock price. Li Auto is Making a Name for Itself in the EV Space
