AeroVironment Price Target Boosted on Nissan Deal (AVAV, NSANF, MRCY, TASR, LDSH, ALTI, BYDDF, MXWL, CHP, ZBB)

Analyst optimism is powering AeroVironment (AVAV) after Nissan (OTC: NSANF) news helped the stock last week.

Broadpoint AmTech lifted its price target on AeroVironment to $41 from $37 this morning after the company won a contract to provide home charging stations for Nissan’s battery-powered Leaf subcompact last week. The analyst noted that with electric vehicle (EV) market penetration projected to be between 5% and 20% by 2020, charger unit sales could ultimately be measured in millions. Initially, Broadpoint AmTech expects the Nissan deal to add a nickel to AeroVironment’s fiscal year 2011 earnings per share.

AeroVironment is among the winners in a mixed Aerospace and Defense Stocks Index today, up by 3.5%. When it isn’t building charging stations for electric vehicles, the company is building unmanned aircraft systems for the U.S. Department of Defense, among other businesses. Over the last month, AeroVironment lags only Mercury Computer Systems (MRCY), Taser International (TASR), and Ladish (LDSH) for the Index’s top-spot.

Elsewhere in the energy storage segment, Altair Nanotechnologies (ALTI), BYD (OTC: BYDDF), and Maxwell Technologies (MXWL) are helping the Energy Storage and Battery Technology Stocks Index while C&D Technologies (CHP) and ZBB Energy (ZBB) sell off by more than -3%.

As of this writing, the Energy Storage and Battery Technology Stocks Index is one of the top-75 performing tickerspy Indexes, up by 8.5%.

Investors can track the Aerospace and Defense Stocks Index and Energy Storage and Battery Technology Stocks Index for performance trends and a suite of other metrics at tickerspy.com.

Tags: ALTI, AVAV, BYDDF, CHP, LDSH, MRCY, MXWL, NSANF, TASR, ZBB