Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Downgraded by Phillip Securities to “Strong Sell”

Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) from a moderate sell rating to a strong sell rating in a report released on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on TSLA. Citigroup dropped their target price on Tesla from $274.00 to $258.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America raised their target price on Tesla from $265.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. KGI Securities raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $276.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on Tesla from $254.00 to $278.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.18.

Tesla Trading Up 3.1 %

Tesla stock opened at $320.72 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Tesla has a one year low of $138.80 and a one year high of $358.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.03 trillion, a PE ratio of 87.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.73 and a beta of 2.29. The business’s fifty day moving average is $252.30 and its 200 day moving average is $220.46.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.00, for a total value of $1,400,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,761,200. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,868,508. This trade represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 188,797 shares of company stock valued at $57,616,781 in the last quarter. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Tesla by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 59,356,401 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $15,469,792,000 after acquiring an additional 1,022,589 shares during the period. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Tesla by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,562 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $932,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the period. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. boosted its holdings in Tesla by 9.2% during the 3rd quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. now owns 38,306 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $10,022,000 after acquiring an additional 3,216 shares during the period. Frisch Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Tesla by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,895 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $757,000 after acquiring an additional 154 shares during the period. Finally, Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in Tesla by 18.0% during the 3rd quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 5,267 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $1,378,000 after acquiring an additional 803 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

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.