Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Up 1% – Still a Buy?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock price was up 1% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $444.40 and last traded at $440.32. Approximately 47,816,958 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 50% from the average daily volume of 95,026,813 shares. The stock had previously closed at $436.17.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on TSLA shares. Roth Capital upgraded shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. HSBC reiterated a “reduce” rating and set a $124.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Tesla from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Tesla from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Tesla from $310.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $272.06.

Tesla Trading Down 3.5 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84. The company has a market capitalization of $1.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 115.36, a P/E/G ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.36. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $322.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $256.48.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.14. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The business had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. Tesla’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $2,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,258,000. This trade represents a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total value of $34,602,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,868,508. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 522,886 shares of company stock valued at $171,393,831 in the last quarter. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new position in shares of Tesla in the second quarter worth $26,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Tesla by 168.8% in the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Transcendent Capital Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Tesla in the third quarter worth $29,000. Clean Yield Group increased its position in shares of Tesla by 60.0% in the third quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Tesla in the third quarter worth $35,000. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

About Tesla

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.