Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Up 1% After Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock price rose 1% on Thursday after Robert W. Baird raised their price target on the stock from $280.00 to $480.00. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $456.36 and last traded at $444.65. Approximately 41,792,681 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 56% from the average daily volume of 94,912,141 shares. The stock had previously closed at $440.13.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on TSLA. Phillip Securities cut shares of Tesla from a “moderate sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Glj Research reissued a “sell” rating and set a $24.86 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Tesla from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. William Blair initiated coverage on Tesla in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on Tesla from $255.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $272.06.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $374.21, for a total transaction of $975,191.26. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,775,792.65. This trade represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.44, for a total transaction of $35,339,911.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,727,400. This represents a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 522,886 shares of company stock worth $171,393,831 over the last 90 days. 20.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. World Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Tesla by 1,248.9% in the third 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 period. Destination Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 12.1% during the third 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. Vinva Investment Management Ltd lifted its holdings 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 worth $30,593,000 after buying an additional 43,685 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC raised its stake in Tesla by 3.3% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Price Performance

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $322.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $255.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 115.36, a PEG ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.36.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.14. Tesla had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 13.07%. The firm had revenue of $25.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 EPS 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.