Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Up 1.2% After Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) traded up 1.2% on Friday after Guggenheim raised their price target on the stock from $156.00 to $175.00. Guggenheim currently has a sell rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $377.52 and last traded at $373.96. 26,162,337 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 94,457,609 shares. The stock had previously closed at $369.49.

TSLA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $310.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $280.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, William Blair started coverage on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $245.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $1,000,000.00. 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. This trade represents a 3.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $352.54, for a total transaction of $35,254,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at $1,903,716. This trade represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 520,280 shares of company stock worth $170,418,640. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TSLA. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. acquired a new stake in Tesla in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Tesla by 168.8% in the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Clean Yield Group increased its position in shares of Tesla by 60.0% during the 3rd quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Tesla during the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 106.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.62 and a beta of 2.36. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $285.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $238.74.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 13.07%. Tesla’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. Analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share 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.