Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Up 3.7% Following Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares shot up 3.7% during mid-day trading on Monday after Roth Capital upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating. The company traded as high as $345.45 and last traded at $345.16. 37,167,621 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 61% from the average session volume of 95,239,375 shares. The stock had previously closed at $332.89.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on TSLA. William Blair began coverage on Tesla in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on shares of Tesla from $254.00 to $278.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $310.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Glj Research reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $24.86 price target on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have given a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Tesla has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $243.75.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $2,000,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,258,000. The trade was a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 297 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.77, for a total transaction of $65,865.69. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,967,479.07. This represents a 0.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 301,187 shares of company stock valued at $92,956,692 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Boulder Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Tesla in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $232,000. Oriental Harbor Investment Fund bought a new stake in shares of Tesla during the third quarter worth $14,700,000. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. lifted its stake in shares of Tesla by 23.3% during the third quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 8,200 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,145,000 after acquiring an additional 1,548 shares during the period. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Tesla by 1,089.8% in the third quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC now owns 25,949 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,789,000 after acquiring an additional 23,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Tesla by 8.2% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,958,174 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,035,577,000 after purchasing an additional 300,951 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Tesla Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.13 trillion, a P/E ratio of 96.28, a PEG ratio of 11.60 and a beta of 2.36. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $278.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $235.10.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. Tesla’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal 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.