Why Lucid Group Stock Motored Over 5% Higher Today
Key Points
It's expanding its partnership with Bolt, and in a meaningful way.
If successful, the partnership will see 100,000 Lucid vehicles deployed in Europe and the Middle East.
Before market open on Monday, an analyst published an update on Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID), in which he left his neutral recommendation on the stock unchanged. However, the research note referenced a recent, potentially very lucrative deal signed by an electric vehicle (EV) maker. This clearly reminded investors of the company's solid potential, and they traded the shares up by more than 5%.
A neutral stance that accentuated the positive
The prognosticator behind that move was Cantor Fitzgerald's Andres Sheppard, who updated his Lucid take after the company announced that deal. The news wasn't enough for Sheppard to change his view or price target on Lucid stock; in addition to maintaining that neutral rating, he also kept his $8 per share price target intact.
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The analyst devoted significant space in his new analysis to the arrangement Lucid announced with Bolt last week, according to reports. On Thursday, it revealed that it and the Europe-based rideshare company were expanding their partnership. This will take the form of a 25,000-vehicle deployment of autonomous vehicles to be manufactured by Lucid.
The self-driving cars will be deployed to strategic markets in both Europe and the Middle East. Ultimately, the two companies' goal is to have 100,000 of these EVs in the two regions by 2035.
Profit takers
At the end of last week, Lucid's shares took something of a "sell the news" hit by profit-taking investors. Sheppard's note, while not overly bullish, was a helpful callback of this large-scale deal, which could provide a robust, long-term revenue stream for Lucid if both it and Bolt execute well.
I understand investor optimism about this arrangement, although it might be overly ambitious given that we're still not particularly close to achieving widespread, fully autonomous vehicle operation.
Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.