Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Up 2.1% – Time to Buy?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock price traded up 2.1% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $342.19 and last traded at $339.85. 16,333,509 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 95,140,461 shares. The stock had previously closed at $332.89.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on TSLA. StockNews.com raised Tesla from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Tesla from a “moderate sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Tesla from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and issued a $295.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have issued a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $231.06.

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 firm has a market capitalization of $1.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 94.56, a P/E/G ratio of 10.81 and a beta of 2.29. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $274.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $232.18.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,868,508. This trade represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 297 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.77, for a total value of $65,865.69. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,967,479.07. The trade was a 0.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 301,187 shares of company stock worth $92,956,692 over the last three months. 20.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Transcendent Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in Tesla during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Bank & Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Clean Yield Group increased its position in shares of Tesla by 60.0% during the third quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new position in Tesla in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. 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.