Wall Street sets Nio stock price for the next 12 months

In an environment that hasn’t necessarily been favorable for EV companies, Chinese automaker Nio (NYSE: NIO) has had a fairly volatile year.

At the start of 2024, NIO stock was trading at around $8.50. By April, the price had dropped to just $3.80 due to disappointing vehicle delivery numbers. In mid-May it rose again to $5.79, but was unable to maintain these prices – and subsequently fell even further to $3.70.

This sad state of affairs continued until September. The company secured a $470 million strategic investment from Chinese government-backed funds – shipments broke records and posted strong double-digit year-over-year growth, and the company even secured a total of $1.9 billion in investments -Dollar. The good news seemed to never end.

Then, on September 25, China’s central bank unveiled a stimulus package on a scale not seen since the pandemic. NIO shares shot up to $7.21 on October 1 as part of the broader Chinese market’s parabolic rally – but as it became apparent that similar measures would not follow the first package, investor sentiment soured.

Nio shares were not spared from the subsequent decline – prices have fallen 36.89% from the high of $7.21 to $4.55 at press time. On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, Nio is down 45.78%. Interestingly, however, Wall Street analysts are optimistic – and quite so.

Stock researchers see a lot of upside potential for Nio shares

Over the past three months, 15 market experts have provided ratings and price targets for Nio stock. More than half, 8 to be precise, are “buy” ratings, while the rest are split between 5 “hold” ratings and only 2 “sell” ratings. That’s quite a vote of confidence – especially for a stock that has fallen as sharply as Nio.

All of this leads to a consensus rating of Moderate Buy – although the most interesting detail is the average price forecast. The lowest price target for Nio shares is $3.90 – a value that represents a downside of 14.28%. At the other end of the scale, the “Street High” price target is $8.90. However, the consensus is clearly in favor of the latter – the average price forecast for NIO stock in 12 months is $6.01 per share TipRanks – which represents an upside potential of 31.22%.

When the company held its third-quarter 2024 earnings call on November 20, investors were largely disappointed – but with plenty of institutional support and a unique selling point in its replaceable battery technology, Nio could be a long-term value company, although it is still profitable at this pace years away.

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