Royal Bank of Canada Cuts Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Price Target to $320.00

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its target price cut by Royal Bank of Canada from $440.00 to $320.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on TSLA. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $180.00 to $388.00 in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $351.00 to $373.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Tesla from $135.00 to $120.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $365.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $319.56.

Tesla Stock Performance

Shares of TSLA stock opened at $236.26 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $338.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $319.44. The company has a market cap of $759.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 115.81, 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.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a return on equity of 10.31% and a net margin of 7.26%. Sell-side analysts predict that Tesla will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.63, for a total transaction of $41,163,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,222,802. This trade represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total transaction of $2,894,920.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,063,565.40. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 477,228 shares of company stock worth $166,849,043 over the last ninety days. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Tesla in the 4th quarter valued at $14,420,248,000. FMR LLC boosted 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 purchasing an additional 9,920,325 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 36,790.0% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 8,660,672 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $3,497,526,000 after purchasing an additional 8,637,195 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 4,963.0% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,834,707 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,356,288,000 after purchasing an additional 5,719,466 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted 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 purchasing an additional 5,075,418 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.