Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Down 3.3% on Insider Selling

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares fell 3.3% on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $363.18 and last traded at $365.71. 34,514,329 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 53% from the average session volume of 72,884,664 shares. The stock had previously closed at $378.17.

Specifically, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $383.11, for a total transaction of $2,681,770.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $41,745,581.15. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $384.04, for a total value of $43,162,255.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 85,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,643,400. This trade represents a 56.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on TSLA shares. Bank of America lowered Tesla from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $400.00 to $490.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Mizuho restated an “outperform” rating and set a $515.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Tesla from $250.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Tesla from $400.00 to $430.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Tesla from $226.00 to $259.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Tesla has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $322.29.

Tesla Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 183.49, a P/E/G ratio of 6.79 and a beta of 2.34. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $407.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $302.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.02 and a quick ratio of 1.61.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.82 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. O Connor Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Tesla during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $206,000. Wedmont Private Capital raised its stake in Tesla by 12.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 39,107 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $9,418,000 after purchasing an additional 4,337 shares during the last quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. raised its stake in Tesla by 15.0% in the 3rd quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. now owns 27,102 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $7,091,000 after purchasing an additional 3,530 shares during the last quarter. Enterprise Bank & Trust Co acquired a new position in Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at $346,000. Finally, Perpetual Ltd acquired a new position in Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at $655,000. 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.