Ferrari's renewed focus on high-end clients is a "game changer" for its valuation said Societe Generale on Wednesday, as the French bank raised its price target for the stock by almost 40 percent.
Italy's most famous supercar maker first listed on the New York Stock exchange in October 2015 with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) price of $52. At Tuesday's close the stock was worth $128.95.
After long questioning the stock's value, the bank said they have now changed their mind, upping their price target for the luxury car manufacturer of $130 from $94 and shifting their recommendation from "Sell" to "Hold".
"The facts have changed and so we have changed our mind on Ferrari," read the note penned by equity analyst Stephen Reitman.
Reitman argued that Ferrari's initial plan to reach its 2022 sales target by turning to the SUV market would be difficult because of widespread competition. He added that any "dash for growth" could risk damaging the brand's exclusivity.
That strategy was put in place by former CEO Sergio Marchionne who died in July this year following surgery. His successor, Louis Camilleri, updated markets in September with a new earnings target range for 2022 of between 1.8 and 2 billion euros ($2.1 -2.3bn).
That represented a slight pull back from Marchionne's 2-billion-euro figure, but Reitman said that while the target numbers were largely unaltered, the company strategy has now changed.
"The new mid-term plan broadly repeats the key financial objectives laid out in February, but the way Ferrari plans to achieve them appears to have fundamentally altered," he said.
The analyst said Ferrari has doubled-down on high end customers after it debuted two brand new road cars, the Ferrari Monza SP1 and SP2 last month.
Ferrari have said that the latest models are part of a limited series called "Icona." The name has been chosen to reference the firms famous racing cars of the 1950's. The cars will retail at a starting price of 1.6 million euros.
Ferrari said the limited edition would run to a maximum of 499 cars but that there will be further model releases as part of the Icona range.
On plans for an SUV release, Ferrari have now pushed back the release date by two years to 2022. Reitman described the change of strategy as a "game-changer" for the firm.
Societe Generale added that Ferrrai's fundamentals ought now to be valued somewhere between the weighted average of the European luxury goods sector and the French high fashion luxury goods manufacturer, Hermes.