Canaccord Genuity Group Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Canaccord Genuity Group in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $404.00 price objective on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Canaccord Genuity Group’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 79.31% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $365.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Cowen upgraded shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Saturday, February 8th. New Street Research upgraded shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $460.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Tesla currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $319.25.

Tesla Trading Down 5.3 %

NASDAQ TSLA opened at $225.31 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Tesla has a 52 week low of $138.80 and a 52 week high of $488.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $724.71 billion, a PE ratio of 110.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $344.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $320.61.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly 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 10.31% and a net margin of 7.26%. As a group, research analysts expect that Tesla will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total value of $2,894,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at $45,063,565.40. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The sale 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 dated 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 85,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,643,400. This represents a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 477,228 shares of company stock worth $166,849,043 in the last 90 days. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TSLA. Swedbank AB grew its stake in Tesla by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,098,717 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $287,457,000 after acquiring an additional 29,669 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Tesla by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,650,393 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $955,052,000 after acquiring an additional 194,796 shares during the last quarter. United Bank acquired a new stake in Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at about $287,000. Chesapeake Capital Corp IL acquired a new stake in Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at about $221,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 3rd quarter worth about $2,363,000. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.