Tesla Inc. TSLA, +5.04% bulls, hoping for a nice Christmas gift, can be thankful as Elon Musk and his Fremont factory have delivered with strong Model 3 demand and profitability that seems to be on the rise for the fourth quarter, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note Thursday. The analyst raised his stock price target on the electric car maker by $100 to $370 but maintained his neutral rating on the stock. "For 4Q, both US consumer demand for Model 3 and most importantly European strength should likely drive upside this quarter and enable Tesla to comfortably hit its vehicle delivery guidance of 360K - 400K units for FY19, which represents an increase of 45% to 65% y/y," Ives wrote. "While part of this recent rally has been a massive short covering, it has also been driven by underlying fundamental improvement as the company's ability to impressively not just talk the talk but walk the walk has been noticed by the Street and the optimism around the story has growth markedly from the dark days seen earlier this year." The company's Shanghai facility is ahead of schedule and will drive growth in China in fiscal 2020 and beyond, said the note. If the company can sustain this level of profitability and demand in Europe and China, it could "open up a new chapter of growth and multiple expansion in our opinion." Ives is retaining his neutral rating while taking a wait-and-see approach to the current demand/profitability spurt, but is moving closer to believing in the turnaround. Tesla shares were up 0.4% premarket and have gained 28% in 2019, while the S&P 500 SPX, +1.59% has gained 29%.