Wells Fargo & Company Has Lowered Expectations for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its target price decreased by Wells Fargo & Company from $135.00 to $130.00 in a research note published on Friday, MarketBeat reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an underweight rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on TSLA. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $404.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Tesla from $492.00 to $474.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Benchmark initiated coverage on shares of Tesla in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $475.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $440.00 to $370.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $325.65.

Tesla Price Performance

Tesla stock opened at $249.98 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $804.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 122.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. Tesla has a one year low of $138.80 and a one year high of $488.54. The business has a fifty day moving average of $351.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $320.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.02.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 EPS 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%. As a group, analysts predict that Tesla will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total transaction of $2,894,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at $45,063,565.40. The trade was a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total transaction of $13,189,513.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 477,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $114,859,478.69. The trade was a 10.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 477,228 shares of company stock valued at $166,849,043. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Tesla by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 243,193,181 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $98,211,134,000 after buying an additional 3,571,793 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Tesla by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 61,011,604 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $24,566,217,000 after acquiring an additional 1,655,203 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Tesla in the 4th quarter valued at about $14,420,248,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Tesla by 40.1% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 34,661,400 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $13,997,660,000 after purchasing an additional 9,920,325 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Tesla by 21.6% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 28,579,615 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $11,541,592,000 after purchasing an additional 5,075,418 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Tesla Company 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.