Major benchmarks moved higher on Friday, lifted by continued strong results for the majority of companies reporting third-quarter earnings. Geopolitical and macroeconomic issues have faded into the background as investors have largely paid attention to issues at the individual-company level, and on the whole, businesses have seen solid results in recent months. Some companies saw their shares continue to gain ground on several types of good news. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings (NYSE: IPOA), and ResMed (NYSE: RMD) were among the top performers. Here's why they did so well.
Shares of Tesla rose 9.5%, adding to their big gains from Thursday following the electric-vehicle manufacturer's surprise profit in the third quarter. Analysts weighed in with their opinions on Friday, with pros at Barclays raising their target price by $50 per share. Barclays still has doubts about Tesla's long-term prospects, and it kept its underweight rating on the stock. Moreover, its new target of $200 per share is still well below the current stock price. Yet even the bearish analyst company acknowledged that it's hard to go against overwhelmingly positive investor sentiment on Tesla in the short run, and with some bullish institutional investors keeping their positions in the automaker, it's possible further share-price gains are yet to come.
Image source: Tesla.