Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading 1.4% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock price traded up 1.4% on Tuesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $270.00 to $325.00. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $422.64 and last traded at $409.05. 34,813,041 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 53% from the average session volume of 74,755,406 shares. The stock had previously closed at $403.31.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. HSBC restated a “reduce” rating and set a $124.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, October 11th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Tesla from $249.00 to $313.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. KGI Securities raised shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $276.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.33.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $1,000,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,258,000. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal 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 shares were sold at an average price of $250.23, for a total transaction of $15,138,915.00. Following the sale, the director now 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 three months, insiders have sold 621,886 shares of company stock worth $213,451,751. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Tesla by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 40,815 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $16,483,000 after purchasing an additional 2,312 shares during the last quarter. GenWealth Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter worth about $213,000. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 25.0% in the fourth quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,410 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $5,415,000 after acquiring an additional 2,680 shares during the last quarter. Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD. raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD. now owns 4,529 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,829,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNC Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. BNC Wealth Management LLC now owns 40,946 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $16,536,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Tesla Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 117.32, a P/E/G ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.30. 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $382.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $284.69.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its 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 company 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. The company’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share 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.