Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading 1% Higher – Should You Buy?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock price was up 1% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $432.80 and last traded at $425.43. Approximately 28,216,913 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 70% from the average daily volume of 95,115,641 shares. The stock had previously closed at $421.06.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Mizuho upgraded shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $230.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Guggenheim raised their price objective on Tesla from $156.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $295.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Tesla from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $272.06.

Tesla Stock Performance

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 firm has a market cap of $1.39 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 118.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.36. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $322.89 and its 200-day 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 13.07%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other Tesla news, Director Kimbal Musk sold 60,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.23, for a total transaction of $15,138,915.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,563,220 shares in the company, valued at $391,164,540.60. This represents a 3.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $1,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at $26,258,000. This represents a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 514,886 shares of company stock worth $169,393,831 over the last three months. Company insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. World Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Tesla by 1,248.9% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 199,229 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $52,124,000 after acquiring an additional 184,459 shares during the period. Destination Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Tesla by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter. Destination Wealth Management now owns 12,597 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $3,296,000 after purchasing an additional 1,359 shares during the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd grew its stake in shares of Tesla by 59.2% during the third quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 117,457 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $30,593,000 after purchasing an additional 43,685 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC increased its holdings in Tesla by 3.3% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 309,382 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $80,944,000 after purchasing an additional 9,919 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in Tesla by 1.2% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 144,482 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $37,801,000 after buying an additional 1,741 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.