Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Up 0.2% on Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shot up 0.2% during trading on Thursday after The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on the stock from $250.00 to $345.00. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $426.92 and last traded at $425.50. 35,914,400 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 62% from the average session volume of 94,495,805 shares. The stock had previously closed at $424.77.

TSLA has been the subject of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Tesla from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. HSBC restated a “reduce” rating and issued a $124.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $310.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on shares of Tesla from $255.00 to $365.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $257.36.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kimbal Musk sold 60,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was 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 represents a 3.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $2,000,000.00. 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 represents a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 522,886 shares of company stock worth $171,393,831. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of TSLA. Transcendent Capital Group LLC bought a new position in Tesla in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Clean Yield Group raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 60.0% during the third quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Tesla by 168.8% in the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new position in Tesla in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Tesla during the 3rd quarter worth $35,000. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Tesla Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $294.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $243.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 116.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.64 and a beta of 2.36.

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

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.