Needham & Company LLC Reiterates Hold Rating for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)‘s stock had its “hold” rating restated by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports.

TSLA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Wedbush upped their price objective on Tesla from $515.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Tesla from $249.00 to $313.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Roth Capital upgraded shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $365.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $318.31.

Tesla Stock Performance

NASDAQ:TSLA opened at $404.60 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.30 trillion, a PE ratio of 198.33, a PEG ratio of 8.08 and a beta of 2.30. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $403.18 and its 200 day moving average is $297.99. Tesla has a fifty-two week low of $138.80 and a fifty-two week high of $488.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.54%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Tesla will post 2.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other Tesla news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.37, for a total transaction of $2,402,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,548,461.84. This represents a 7.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 553,386 shares of company stock valued at $196,305,796 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Transcendent Capital Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Tesla in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Clean Yield Group lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Tesla in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. M&R Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Tesla by 263.2% in the 3rd quarter. M&R Capital Management Inc. now owns 138 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA purchased a new position in Tesla during the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,000. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.