Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Down 0.8% – Should You Sell?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s share price dropped 0.8% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $451.90 and last traded at $458.74. Approximately 32,416,241 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 66% from the average daily volume of 94,912,625 shares. The stock had previously closed at $462.28.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on Tesla from $197.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Tesla from $287.00 to $411.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Tesla from $195.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Phillip Securities cut shares of Tesla from a “moderate sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Tesla has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $272.06.

Tesla Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $1.39 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 118.26, a P/E/G ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.36. 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 fifty day simple moving average of $345.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $265.37.

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 net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The firm had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $374.21, for a total transaction of $975,191.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,775,792.65. This represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kimbal Musk sold 60,500 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.23, for a total value of $15,138,915.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,563,220 shares in the company, valued at approximately $391,164,540.60. This trade represents a 3.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 514,886 shares of company stock valued at $169,393,831. Insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,482,000. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Tesla by 12.7% during the second quarter. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,371 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $271,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Canal Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $271,000. Abacus Planning Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Tesla in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $255,000. Finally, Sabal Trust CO bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $219,000. 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.