Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Down 0.3% Following Insider Selling

Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) fell 0.3% during trading on Wednesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $267.71 and last traded at $271.18. Approximately 35,247,910 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 56% from the average daily volume of 80,167,531 shares. The stock had previously closed at $272.04.

Specifically, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.02, for a total value of $1,776,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 23,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,833,325.68. This trade represents a 20.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $299.61, for a total value of $33,673,167.90. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares in the company, valued at $25,466,850. This represents a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on TSLA shares. 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. Wedbush set a $302.80 price objective on Tesla in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. StockNews.com cut shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Tesla from $315.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “mixed” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Saturday, February 8th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $315.33.

Tesla Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of $374.97 and a 200-day moving average of $318.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.02. The stock has a market cap of $897.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 136.81, a PEG ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.34.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its 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%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Tesla by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 243,193,181 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $98,211,134,000 after purchasing an additional 3,571,793 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Tesla by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 61,011,604 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $24,566,217,000 after purchasing an additional 1,655,203 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Tesla during the 4th quarter worth approximately $14,420,248,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 40.1% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 34,661,400 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $13,997,660,000 after buying an additional 9,920,325 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 21.6% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 28,579,615 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $11,541,592,000 after buying an additional 5,075,418 shares during the period. 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.