Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) gapped up prior to trading on Monday after Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $249.00 to $313.00. The stock had previously closed at $320.72, but opened at $340.73. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Tesla shares last traded at $340.84, with a volume of 29,883,541 shares.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on TSLA. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Roth Mkm restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $85.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Tesla from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. New Street Research lowered Tesla from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their target price on Tesla from $236.00 to $238.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $230.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 297 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.77, for a total value of $65,865.69. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,491 shares in the company, valued at $14,967,479.07. This trade represents a 0.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.00, for a total transaction of $1,400,000.00. Following 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 188,797 shares of company stock valued at $57,616,781 over the last three months. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Tesla by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 36,399 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,399,000 after buying an additional 331 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in Tesla by 113.9% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 65,437 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $11,503,000 after acquiring an additional 34,850 shares during the period. Leelyn Smith LLC raised its position in Tesla by 107.2% in the first quarter. Leelyn Smith LLC now owns 10,831 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,904,000 after purchasing an additional 5,603 shares in the last quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in Tesla during the first quarter worth about $9,703,000. Finally, Mattern Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Tesla by 33.6% in the 1st quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 5,195 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $913,000 after buying an additional 1,307 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Tesla Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of $254.75 and a 200 day moving average of $222.13. The firm has a market cap of $1.09 trillion, a P/E ratio of 92.81, a P/E/G ratio of 10.42 and a beta of 2.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84.

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

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.