Wells Fargo & Company Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its target price cut by research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $135.00 to $130.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has an “underweight” rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target indicates a potential downside of 48.00% from the stock’s current price.

TSLA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. New Street Research raised shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $460.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Glj Research reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Tesla from $135.00 to $120.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Tesla from $259.00 to $225.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $180.00 to $388.00 in a report on Friday, March 7th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $325.65.

Tesla Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA opened at $249.98 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $804.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 122.54, a PEG ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. Tesla has a 12 month low of $138.80 and a 12 month high of $488.54. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $351.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $319.51. 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 released 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%. Analysts expect that Tesla will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $384.04, for a total transaction of $43,162,255.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,643,400. This represents a 56.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total transaction of $13,189,513.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 477,011 shares in the company, valued at $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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 477,228 shares of company stock worth $166,849,043. Company insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Tableaux LLC purchased a new position in Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $681,000. Keystone Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $246,000. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $379,613,000. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $10,823,000. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 100.1% in the fourth quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 53,332 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $21,538,000 after acquiring an additional 26,682 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.