Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Lifted to “Outperform” at KGI Securities

KGI Securities upgraded shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a report published on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has $276.00 price objective on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

TSLA has been the topic of a number of other reports. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday. HSBC reiterated a “reduce” rating and issued a $124.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research report on Friday, October 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Tesla from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday. UBS Group cut Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $147.00 to $197.00 in a report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Tesla from $225.00 to $220.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $219.00.

Tesla Price Performance

Shares of Tesla stock opened at $269.19 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Tesla has a 52 week low of $138.80 and a 52 week high of $271.00. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $230.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $207.45. The company has a market capitalization of $858.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.67, a PEG ratio of 6.24 and a beta of 2.29.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $25.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 10.41% and a net margin of 13.00%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Tesla will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $2,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,258,000. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $2,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,258,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 297 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.77, for a total value of $65,865.69. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,967,479.07. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 25.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. Financial Advocates Investment Management grew its holdings in shares of Tesla by 1.8% during the third quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 53,003 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $13,867,000 after buying an additional 952 shares during the last quarter. S.A. Mason LLC raised its stake in Tesla by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,295 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $339,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Tesla by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,042 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,319,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the period. Oak Harvest Investment Services purchased a new stake in Tesla during the 3rd quarter valued at about $319,000. Finally, Burr Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Tesla in the third quarter worth about $9,892,000. 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.