Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Up 0.9% on Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock price rose 0.9% on Thursday after Truist Financial raised their price target on the stock from $351.00 to $373.00. Truist Financial currently has a hold rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $412.50 and last traded at $392.43. Approximately 44,919,076 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 38% from the average daily volume of 72,095,328 shares. The stock had previously closed at $389.10.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “underperform” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on Tesla from $254.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. New Street Research upgraded shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $460.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wedbush upped their price objective on Tesla from $515.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Phillip Securities lowered Tesla from a “moderate sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Tesla has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $314.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In related news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.63, for a total value of $41,163,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,222,802. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.76, for a total value of $1,007,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at $26,442,856.32. This trade represents a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 617,886 shares of company stock valued at $212,451,751 over the last ninety days. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. Transcendent Capital Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Clean Yield Group raised its holdings in Tesla by 60.0% in the 3rd quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. M&R Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Tesla by 263.2% in the third quarter. M&R Capital Management Inc. now owns 138 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 4th quarter worth $46,000. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Tesla Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The company has a market capitalization of $1.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 107.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.42 and a beta of 2.30. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $401.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $297.28.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Tesla Company Profile

Tesla, Inc designs, develops, manufactures, leases, and sells electric vehicles, and energy generation and storage systems in the United States, China, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Automotive, and Energy Generation and Storage. The Automotive segment offers electric vehicles, as well as sells automotive regulatory credits; and non-warranty after-sales vehicle, used vehicles, body shop and parts, supercharging, retail merchandise, and vehicle insurance services.