Welch Group LLC Reduces Stock Position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Welch Group LLC lessened its holdings in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,400 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after selling 136 shares during the quarter. Welch Group LLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $1,002,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. World Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Tesla by 1,248.9% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 199,229 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $52,124,000 after acquiring an additional 184,459 shares in the last quarter. Destination Wealth Management boosted its stake in Tesla by 12.1% in the third quarter. Destination Wealth Management now owns 12,597 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $3,296,000 after acquiring an additional 1,359 shares in the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd boosted its stake in Tesla by 59.2% in the third quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 117,457 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $30,593,000 after acquiring an additional 43,685 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its stake in Tesla by 3.3% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 309,382 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $80,944,000 after acquiring an additional 9,919 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its stake in Tesla by 1.2% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 144,482 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $37,801,000 after acquiring an additional 1,741 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on TSLA shares. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Tesla from $480.00 to $440.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. New Street Research upgraded shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $460.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. KGI Securities upgraded shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $276.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $322.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Tesla news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $384.04, for a total value of $43,162,255.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 85,000 shares in the company, valued at $32,643,400. This trade represents a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.00, for a total transaction of $1,400,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,761,200. This trade represents a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 664,776 shares of company stock worth $239,746,862. 20.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Tesla Trading Down 3.4 %

Shares of TSLA opened at $361.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.02 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $407.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $302.76. Tesla, Inc. has a 1-year low of $138.80 and a 1-year high of $488.54. The stock has a market cap of $1.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 177.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.79 and a beta of 2.34.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share (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%. Equities analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.82 EPS for the current fiscal 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.