Tesla Stock Soars on FSD Approval in China. 3 Reasons the News Is a Big Deal.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a surprise visit to China over the weekend and was rewarded for his effort.

Tesla received official approval from Beijing to introduce its most advanced driver-assistance features in the company’s cars, according to The Wall Street Journal. Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.

It’s a “major moment” for Tesla, wrote Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a Monday report.

The stock traded as high as $198.87 and closed up 15.3% at $194.05; the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite finished the day with gains, too—0.3% and 0.4%, respectively.

Shares have gained about 37% over the past five days—the best five-day run since August 2020, when they rose 37.3% over the span that ended Aug. 18. Outside of the pandemic year, investors have to look back to 2013 to find a better five-day run.

Tesla offers some driver-assistance features, such as adaptive cruise control, but wasn’t allowed to offer all the features of its highest-level system it calls Full Self-Driving, or FSD.

The win does a few things for Tesla. For starters, better driver-assistance products can mean more demand for Tesla vehicles in China. Second, it demonstrates the company can navigate complicated government regulations related to driver-assistance technology. And third, it shows that Tesla has increasing confidence in the quality of its self-driving car technology.

“We expect this announcement to lead to a near-term uptick in FSD attach rates—which we currently model at about 10%—and improve the offering longer term,” wrote Baird analyst Ben Kallo in a Monday report. Attach rates refer to how many people buying Tesla vehicles also buy FSD. “We also view this announcement as a potential pathway for Tesla to follow for entering new markets.”

“While the long-term valuation story at Tesla hinges on FSD and autonomous, a key missing piece in that puzzle is Tesla making FSD available in China which is now a done deal,” added Ives. “This is a key moment for Musk as well as Beijing at a time that Tesla has faced massive domestic EV competition in China along with softer demand.”

To help win Chinese approval for FSD, Musk needed to assuage regulators’ concerns about data security risks. To that end, he agreed to use navigation and mapping functions provided by Chinese firm Baidu, the Journal said.

Baidu’s American depositary receipts, or ADRs, rose 5.6%, closing at $106.17.

Musk has long believed that achieving autonomous driving represents a huge financial windfall for the company. Reaching that goal has been harder to achieve than anyone expected—the original Darpa self-driving challenge was 20 years ago. But he’s nearing a significant milestone: Tesla has scheduled a robotaxi reveal event on Aug. 8.

Through Monday trading, Tesla shares were off about 22% this year, underperforming the Nasdaq by some 28 percentage points. Slowing growth has weighed on investors’ minds. Tesla delivered about 387,000 units in the first quarter, down almost 9%, year over year. Headed into last week’s earnings, the fear was Tesla stock could break down toward 2023 lows of around $100 a share.

Better-than-feared first-quarter earnings, as well as a revelation that Tesla would accelerate the development of a lower-priced vehicle, boosted investor sentiment.

“Tesla is above its 50-day moving average today, putting [its] next resistance [level] near $200,” says Fairlead Strategies founder Katie Stockton, who is a technical analyst. That means she makes calls on Tesla shares based on stock charts, not fundamentals, to get a sense of what can happen over the short run. Stockton doesn’t have a rating for Tesla stock.

Kallo and Ives rates Tesla shares Buy. Ives has a price target of $275 a share; Kallo has one at $280.

On the other side, Philips Securities analyst Jonathan Woo downgraded Tesla shares to Sell from Hold on Monday. He cut his price target to $145 a share, down from $175, citing slowing growth and pressure on profit margins.

Overall, 43% of analysts covering Tesla stock rate shares Buy, according to FactSet. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%. The average analyst price target for Tesla shares is about $183 each.

Write to Al Root at [email protected] and Brian Swint at [email protected]