LifeSteps Financial Inc. Grows Stake in Tesla, Inc. $TSLA

LifeSteps Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 14.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,716 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 335 shares during the period. LifeSteps Financial Inc.’s holdings in Tesla were worth $863,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Tesla by 86.3% in the first quarter. Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC now owns 95 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. First PREMIER Bank grew its position in Tesla by 79.2% in the first quarter. First PREMIER Bank now owns 95 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI purchased a new position in Tesla in the first quarter worth $27,000. Newton One Investments LLC boosted its position in Tesla by 250.0% during the first quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 105 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the period. Finally, Chelsea Counsel Co. boosted its position in Tesla by 59.7% during the first quarter. Chelsea Counsel Co. now owns 107 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 value of $42,034,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 697,031 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $244,162,988.99. This represents a 14.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.38, for a total transaction of $918,302.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,473,057.28. The trade was a 20.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 202,606 shares of company stock valued at $75,588,902 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 19.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on TSLA. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $355.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $410.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Guggenheim restated a “sell” rating and set a $175.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on shares of Tesla from $333.00 to $490.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and eight have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $349.37.

Tesla Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:TSLA opened at $435.54 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 251.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.04 and a beta of 2.08. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $373.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $326.64. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Tesla, Inc. has a 12 month low of $212.11 and a 12 month high of $488.54.

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

Tesla Profile

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.