Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price objective upped by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $400.00 to $430.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 8.49% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on TSLA. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Tesla from $411.00 to $492.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Tesla from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Bank of America lowered Tesla from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $400.00 to $490.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a report on Monday, November 18th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $296.60.

Tesla Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA opened at $396.36 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $382.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $284.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Tesla has a 12-month low of $138.80 and a 12-month high of $488.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 108.59, a P/E/G ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.30.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.47 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.53 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Tesla will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.76, for a total value of $1,007,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,442,856.32. This trade represents a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total transaction of $34,602,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,868,508. This trade represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 621,886 shares of company stock valued at $213,451,751. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TSLA. Mason & Associates Inc grew its holdings in shares of Tesla by 26.2% in the 4th quarter. Mason & Associates Inc now owns 11,873 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $4,795,000 after acquiring an additional 2,468 shares during the period. Foresight Capital Management Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at $205,000. SignalPoint Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. SignalPoint Asset Management LLC now owns 7,130 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $2,879,000 after buying an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Financial Enhancement Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 4th quarter worth about $672,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Tesla by 466.7% during the 4th quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,275 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $515,000 after acquiring an additional 1,050 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

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.