Tesla Analyst Says Shareholders Have a Reason to Rejoice

Twitter may be grabbing the headlines on Friday after current CEO Elon Musk named his successor, but shareholders in Musk's other company, Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Free Report, have a real reason to celebrate. 

Now that former NBCUniversal honcho Linda Yaccarino has been named as his replacement, Musk can get back to running his most important company. 

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"I think it was a significant overhang in terms of worrying about distractions with Musk at such a key time for Tesla. As this arms race plays out with price cuts that we've seen, this is very important in terms of distraction risk," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told Yahoo Finance. 

On Thursday, Ives published a research report suggesting that the removal of the "lingering albatross" of Musk's stewardship of Tesla adds about $15 per share to his price target for Tesla. 

That would be great news for long-time Tesla shareholders who have seen the stock's valuation plunge 72% from its all-time high in 2021. It's also good news for Musk as nearly 60% of his estimated $180 billion fortune is due to his ownership stake in Tesla, according to Forbes. 

But the questions remains whether Yaccarino is the right choice to ease Musk out of the driver's seat at Twitter. Dan Ives believes she is. 

"I view it as a home run hire. From an advertising perspective this is exactly what the Twitter platform needed and now Musk can do what he does best," Ives said. 

"He is the heart and lungs of Tesla. So as a Tesla investor right now, you want Musk doubling down on Tesla. The last thing you want is for distractions to continue."

Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating on Tesla with a $215 price target, representing a 25% upside from the stock's current levels.