Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Benchmark analyst Mickey Legg initiated on Wednesday coverage of Lucid Motors with a ‘Buy’ rating and a $5.00 price target, implying an upside of about 86%.
Shares of the EV maker closed at $2.69 on Tuesday and rose nearly 4% in early trading on Wednesday following the analyst’s call.
In a new research note, Legg said the firm expects domestic EV production to rebound in 2025 after stalling in 2024, with growth accelerating further in 2026-27 as declining average selling prices and an expanding charging infrastructure boost demand.
The analyst said Lucid is “well positioned to achieve significant share of this burgeoning opportunity,” citing its technology, balance sheet, access to capital, and backing from Saudi investors and partnerships.
Legg also highlighted the company’s “award-winning vehicles” and “highly integrated manufacturing capabilities.”
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, disclosed in its quarterly filing last week that it added 5.4 million shares in the EV maker Lucid Motors in the fourth quarter of 2024. The firm increased its stake in the company by 12.7%.
Lucid currently has 666 institutional investors holding a combined 1.69 billion shares, near a record high. Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has a stake of about 60% in the company.
Saudi-Backed EV Maker
In October, Lucid announced a combined public offering and private placement of approximately 637 million shares to raise over $1.7 billion.
The offering consisted of a public sale of over 262 million shares, while Ayar Third Investment — an affiliate of the PIF — committed to buying nearly 375 million shares through a private placement.
Benchmark x Tesla
On the same day, Legg also initiated coverage on Tesla with a Buy rating and a price target of $475.00. The analyst said Tesla has “outlined a path for growth with a more affordable vehicle” scheduled for the first half of this year.
Additionally, Benchmark’s analyst also mentioned Tesla’s “unsupervised full self- driving as a paid service this June in Austin” and “Optimus robot production ramp through 2026 and beyond.”
US Sales in January
The company sold 665 vehicles in January, down from a record 780 in December, according to Motor Intelligence estimates released last week.
Year over year, Lucid’s U.S. sales rose 51%, with an estimated 615 Air sedans and 50 Gravity SUVs registered last month.
After having delivered the first units of its second model — the Gravity SUV — in late December, Lucid has not yet revealed when U.S. and Canadian customers can expect the first deliveries of the high-end variant.
Last week, the SUV gained access to Tesla’s supercharger network with CEO Peter Rawlinson naming it “the most available and convenient charging network in the United States and Canada.”
According to Motor Intelligence, fourth-quarter sales in the U.S. stood at 2,162 units while 2024 figures were 7,578 vehicles.
