Ashton Thomas Securities LLC Boosts Stock Position in Tesla, Inc. $TSLA

Ashton Thomas Securities LLC grew its stake in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 0.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,219 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Tesla makes up about 0.9% of Ashton Thomas Securities LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $3,881,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in Tesla by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 87,929 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $35,509,000 after acquiring an additional 9,293 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Tesla by 21.2% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,317 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,147,000 after acquiring an additional 931 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Tesla by 52.2% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 10,368 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $4,187,000 after acquiring an additional 3,558 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Tesla by 3.7% in the first quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,605 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $1,193,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vest Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Tesla by 73.5% in the first quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 20,934 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $5,425,000 after acquiring an additional 8,868 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 120,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.29, for a total transaction of $42,034,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 697,031 shares in the company, valued at approximately $244,162,988.99. This represents a 14.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $292.89, for a total transaction of $1,171,560.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 5,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,735,080.36. This trade represents a 40.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 208,606 shares of company stock valued at $77,360,462. 19.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TSLA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. HSBC upped their price objective on Tesla from $120.00 to $127.00 in a report on Monday, September 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Tesla from $395.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Mizuho upped their price target on Tesla from $375.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $355.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $440.00 price target on Tesla in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and eight have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $343.43.

Tesla Stock Performance

Shares of TSLA stock opened at $429.83 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $364.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $321.99. The firm has a market cap of $1.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 248.46, a PEG ratio of 14.93 and a beta of 2.08. Tesla, Inc. has a 1 year low of $212.11 and a 1 year high of $488.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a current ratio of 2.04.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $22.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.18 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 7.98% and a net margin of 6.54%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.52 EPS. Analysts predict that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 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.