Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading 0.9% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares were up 0.9% during mid-day trading on Thursday after UBS Group raised their price target on the stock from $226.00 to $259.00. UBS Group currently has a sell rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $412.50 and last traded at $392.43. Approximately 44,919,076 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 38% from the average daily volume of 72,095,328 shares. The stock had previously closed at $389.10.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Tesla from $315.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Tesla from $295.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. KGI Securities upgraded Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $276.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Bank of America downgraded Tesla from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $400.00 to $490.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Tesla from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $318.31.

Insider Activity

In related news, 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 $31,548,461.84. This trade represents a 7.08 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.63, for a total value of $41,163,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,222,802. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 553,386 shares of company stock worth $196,305,796. Insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. World Investment Advisors LLC boosted 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 purchasing an additional 184,459 shares during the last quarter. Destination Wealth Management boosted 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 purchasing an additional 1,359 shares during the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd boosted its stake in Tesla by 59.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 117,457 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $30,593,000 after purchasing an additional 43,685 shares during the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its stake in Tesla by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 309,382 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $80,944,000 after purchasing an additional 9,919 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its stake in Tesla by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 144,482 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $37,801,000 after purchasing an additional 1,741 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Tesla Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $1.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 109.67, a P/E/G ratio of 8.42 and a beta of 2.30. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $401.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $297.28.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 13.07%. Equities research analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.01 earnings per share for the current year.

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.