Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Up 1.7% – Here’s What Happened

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock price rose 1.7% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $367.34 and last traded at $360.09. Approximately 27,852,437 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 63% from the average daily volume of 75,090,922 shares. The stock had previously closed at $354.11.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TSLA has been the topic of several analyst reports. New Street Research raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $460.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Tesla from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Tesla from $400.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Roth Mkm raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Glj Research reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $24.86 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Tesla has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $326.50.

Tesla Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 177.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 2.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.02. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $404.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $310.79.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share 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%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.43, for a total transaction of $2,481,010.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at $37,226,491.76. This represents a 6.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.06, for a total value of $39,792,803.40. Following the sale, the director now owns 85,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,095,100. This represents a 56.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 523,386 shares of company stock worth $195,995,200. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Richmond Investment Services LLC purchased a new stake in Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at about $705,000. Invst LLC boosted its holdings in Tesla by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. Invst LLC now owns 3,657 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $1,477,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares during the period. Cache Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at about $8,462,000. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. purchased a new stake in Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at about $170,808,000. Finally, CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. purchased a new stake in Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,249,000. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.