Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Up 5.3% After Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shot up 5.3% during mid-day trading on Monday after Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on the stock from $295.00 to $370.00. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft currently has a buy rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $389.49 and last traded at $389.22. 81,455,834 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 7% from the average session volume of 87,944,376 shares. The stock had previously closed at $369.49.

TSLA has been the subject of several other reports. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Tesla from a “moderate sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Glj Research reissued a “sell” rating and set a $24.86 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Tesla from $287.00 to $411.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $248.12.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,868,508. The trade was a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,775,792.65. This represents a 2.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 522,886 shares of company stock worth $171,393,831. 20.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. World Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Tesla by 1,248.9% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 199,229 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $52,124,000 after acquiring an additional 184,459 shares during the period. Vinva Investment Management Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Tesla by 59.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 117,457 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $30,593,000 after purchasing an additional 43,685 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Tesla by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 144,482 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $37,801,000 after purchasing an additional 1,741 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in shares of Tesla by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 309,382 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $80,944,000 after purchasing an additional 9,919 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tyler Stone Wealth Management raised its holdings in Tesla by 109.6% in the 3rd quarter. Tyler Stone Wealth Management now owns 9,425 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,466,000 after buying an additional 4,929 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Tesla Trading Up 0.1 %

The company has a market cap of $1.25 trillion, a PE ratio of 106.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.64 and a beta of 2.36. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $288.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $240.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.37.

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, 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 firm had revenue of $25.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate 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.