UBS increased its price target on both Rivian and Tesla shares on Thursday, extending a gradually warming stance on the two EV makers that the Swiss bank had rated as a Sell earlier this year.
Analyst Joseph Spak lifted Rivian‘s target to $17 from $16 and Tesla‘s to $442 from $364, maintaining Neutral ratings on both stocks.
The hike follows stronger-than-expected second-quarter delivery results from both companies, which reported them exactly a week ago.
Rivian
Rivian delivered 12,194 vehicles in the second quarter, beating its own guidance range of 9,000 to 11,000 units and topping the Visible Alpha consensus of roughly 10,518.
Production at the Normal, Illinois plant reached 12,613 vehicles, a 23.2% increase from the first quarter — as the company began manufacturing its mid-size SUV R2.
On the strength of the beat, the company raised its full-year 2026 delivery forecast to 65,000 to 70,000 vehicles, up from 62,000 to 67,000.
Reaching the midpoint of the new target requires roughly 45,000 deliveries in the second half — close to double the first-half pace of 22,559 — a ramp dependent on the R2 scaling at Normal.
The new price target arrives amid a volatile stretch for Rivian‘s stock.
Shares rallied roughly 15% in the week following the Q2 disclosure, climbing above $20, before plunging 18% on Tuesday — after the company announced an underwritten public offering of 75 million shares.
The offering, priced at $15.50 per share, raised approximately $1.2 billion in gross proceeds.
Rivian said proceeds would fund general corporate purposes, including equity contributions tied to a Department of Energy loan supporting the Georgia manufacturing build-out.
Alongside the offering, Rivian disclosed preliminary second-quarter revenue of $1.55 billion to $1.65 billion, above the analyst consensus of $1.45 billion.
Based on Wednesday’s closing price of $16.66, UBS’s $17 target implies an upside potential of 2.0%.
As of Thursday’s first trading hours, however, Rivian‘s stock was trading nearly 7% up at $17.80.
Tesla
Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles in the second quarter, an 18% beat over its own company-compiled consensus of 406,024 and a 25% year-over-year increase.
Deliveries surpassed even the most optimistic sell-side forecasts, which had ranged from 418,000 to 420,000.
The results marked Tesla‘s best-ever second quarter, surpassing the 466,140 vehicles delivered in Q2 2023 — and represented the first quarterly year-over-year growth after two consecutive years of declining sales.
Production came in at 451,758 vehicles, meaning Tesla drew down roughly 28,000 units of inventory rather than building stock — a reversal from recent quarters.
Spak’s $442 target represents a 21.4% increase from the $364 he had set on April 23 and reaffirmed on June 23.
UBS’s prior pre-delivery note had forecast 405,000 deliveries for the quarter, roughly in line with consensus.
Despite the delivery beat, Tesla shares fell 7.5% on the day the results were announced, closing at $393.45 on July 2, as investors booked profits after a run-up ahead of the report.
Based on Wednesday’s closing price of $394.06, the $442 target implies 12.2% upside potential.
As of press time, Tesla shares were trading nearly flat at $393 on Thursday.
UBS History
Spak’s latest notes continue a gradual but significant shift in UBS’s view on both companies over the past year.
On Tesla, the analyst held a Sell rating for roughly a year, from at least June 2025 through mid-April 2026.
During that stretch, he raised the price target in increments — from $215 in June 2025, briefly after the stock’s yearly low of $214.25 on April 15, to $247 in October.
In January, UBS set a price target of $352 on Tesla, after the company disclosed its fourth-quarter earnings results.
The firm maintained its bearish rating on the stock, which traded between $416–440 in the day that followed the report.
The shift came on April 14, when UBS dropped the Sell rating and upgraded to Neutral, citing a more balanced risk-reward profile after Tesla‘s stock had fallen roughly 25% in a turbulent first quarter.
At the time, Spak acknowledged long-term opportunities in what UBS calls “physical AI” — encompassing the Robotaxi and Optimus programmes — while flagging near-term demand challenges, an elevated investment cycle, and high valuation as persistent risks.
He subsequently raised the target to $364 on April 23 and reiterated it on June 23 ahead of Q2 deliveries.
On Rivian, UBS’s trajectory has been similar.
Spak held a Neutral rating through most of 2025, with targets of $12 in August and $13 in October.
He then downgraded to Sell in January, citing a lack of near-term autonomous-vehicle milestones, before reversing course just a month later — upgrading back to Neutral in February and lifting the target to $16.
In April, Spak reiterated the $16 target while raising doubts about Rivian’s ambitions to license its software platform to legacy automakers, writing that UBS had “a difficult time seeing this platform model gaining traction near-term.”
Thursday’s $1 increase is modest, however it extends an unbroken upward trend in Rivian targets since the October 2025 low of $13.
Other Analysts
Stifel analyst Stephen Gengaro also raised his price target on the EV maker to $22 — which would represent a 32.1% upside — while maintaining a Buy rating on the stock.
Gengaro cited the delivery upbeat and the preliminary revenue expectations as reasons for the model update.
Recently, Jefferies raised its Rivian target to $17 from $16 while maintaining a Hold rating, citing the equity raise and a credible path toward positive gross margin by year-end.
JPMorgan’s price target was hiked to $15 from $9, despite the firm keeping an Underweight rating on the EV maker’s stock.
Rivian is scheduled to report second-quarter financial results on July 30, while Tesla has set its report for July 22.
