First Western Trust Bank Acquires Shares of 527 Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

First Western Trust Bank bought a new position in shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 527 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock, valued at approximately $213,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Tesla during the 4th quarter worth about $14,420,248,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 36,790.0% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 8,660,672 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $3,497,526,000 after purchasing an additional 8,637,195 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Tesla by 4,963.0% during the fourth 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. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Tesla by 55,181.0% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,382,674 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $1,769,899,000 after purchasing an additional 4,374,746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Tesla by 194.7% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,486,739 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $2,215,765,000 after purchasing an additional 3,624,910 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total value of $13,189,513.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 477,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $114,859,478.69. This trade represents a 10.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,672 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.73, for a total transaction of $718,046.56. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 26,950 shares in the company, valued at $7,242,273.50. This trade represents a 9.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 477,228 shares of company stock valued at $166,849,043 in the last 90 days. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on TSLA shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Tesla from $270.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Tesla from $490.00 to $380.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Glj Research restated a “buy” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Guggenheim lowered their price target on shares of Tesla from $175.00 to $170.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Tesla from $259.00 to $225.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 10th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $312.65.

Tesla Stock Performance

Shares of TSLA opened at $267.28 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $859.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 131.02, a PEG ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. Tesla, Inc. has a 12 month low of $138.80 and a 12 month high of $488.54. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $309.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $322.81. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. Research analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal 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.