Guggenheim Has Lowered Expectations for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price objective reduced by stock analysts at Guggenheim from $175.00 to $170.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. The firm presently has a “sell” rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Guggenheim’s price target points to a potential downside of 29.37% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on TSLA. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com cut Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $365.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Roth Mkm raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Tesla has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $325.81.

Tesla Trading Down 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA opened at $240.68 on Wednesday. Tesla has a twelve month low of $138.80 and a twelve month high of $488.54. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $354.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $318.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $774.15 billion, a PE ratio of 117.98, a PEG ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share 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 analysts forecast that Tesla will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,672 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.73, for a total transaction of $718,046.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 26,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,242,273.50. This represents a 9.02 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total value of $13,189,513.04. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 477,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $114,859,478.69. This represents a 10.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 477,228 shares of company stock valued at $166,849,043. Insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. World Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Tesla by 1,248.9% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 199,229 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $52,124,000 after acquiring an additional 184,459 shares during the last quarter. Destination Wealth Management raised its stake in Tesla by 12.1% during the 3rd quarter. Destination Wealth Management now owns 12,597 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $3,296,000 after acquiring an additional 1,359 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC raised its stake in Tesla by 126.7% during the 4th quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 1,594 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $644,000 after acquiring an additional 891 shares during the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 59.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 117,457 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $30,593,000 after buying an additional 43,685 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC raised its stake 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 buying an additional 9,919 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.