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Tesla stock is on track for a second-consecutive weekly rise as bullish analysts—and CEO Elon Musk—continued to defend demand for the electric car maker’s vehicles.

Tesla stock (TSLA), off more than 30% this year, was recently up 0.4% to $214.80 as the S&P 500 was about flat. That had the shares ahead 5% for the week; last week, they rose 10%. This week’s rise has come with some bumps along the way.

The shares fell Wednesday, the day after the company’s annual meeting, even though Musk used that gathering to reassure investors that the second quarter was likely to look better than the first. (“There is not a demand problem,” Musk said. “Absolutely not.”)

And Reuters on Thursday reported that the Trump administration denied the company’s bid for tariff relief on some Chinese-made components of its vehicles—hurting the stock, though it finished up yesterday.

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The stock got help Friday from an upbeat Electrek report on North American deliveries. (The previous night, Musk had reminded his Twitter followers to get their orders in this month before U.S. tax credits fall again.)

And on Thursday, Berenberg analyst Alexander Haissl—a Tesla bull with a Buy rating and a $500 price target, well above FactSet’s $285 average, on the stock—became the latest analyst to offer optimism about demand for the vehicles.

“Demand worries are overblown, as the first-quarter volume weakness was largely self-inflicted by logistic problems, uncertainty about store closures and changing pricing structure, and not indicative of the underlying demand situation,” he wrote.

Haissl believes that increased competition could help Tesla because consumers considering electric vehicles will comparison-shop and determine that its vehicles offer better technology and value. “The advantage of Tesla over competitors is too significant to be ignored and dismissed,” he wrote.

Wall Street is looking for second-quarter delivers of 92,000, according to FactSet. Musk has pointed toward “record” numbers that would imply something above the 90,700 recorded in last year’s fourth quarter. In April, Tesla said to expect a number between 90,000 and 100,000.

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“Although it is possible to deliver a higher number of vehicles, we believe it is important to begin unwinding the ‘wave’ approach to vehicle deliveries, where overseas cars have been made in the first half of the quarter and North American cars have been made in the second half,” the company said in April. “This puts extreme stress on Tesla, negatively affects our working capital needs and adds to our cost structure.”

As investors become more comfortable with demand levels for Teslas, Haissl wrote, the shares should rise as other catalysts—such as the potential for its under-construction China factory and autonomous driving technology—have a “multiplier effect on the stock.”

But don’t expect a good quarter to make demand a nonissue. “The demand debate is likely to remain an ‘on paper’ battlefield between bulls/bears and will only be resolved once hard facts are reported,” Haissl wrote, “as management is given little credibility for any reassuring commentary.”

This story was first published on June 14, 2019. It was updated to reflect share price movement and to add the Electrek and Twitter references.

Email David Marino-Nachison at david.marino-nachison@barrons.com. Follow him at @marinonachison and follow Barron’s Next at @barronsnext.