Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Down 1.7% – Time to Sell?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) dropped 1.7% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $350.03 and last traded at $349.73. Approximately 28,410,360 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 63% from the average daily volume of 76,066,023 shares. The stock had previously closed at $355.94.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on TSLA shares. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Tesla from $492.00 to $474.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Tesla from $315.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Phillip Securities lowered Tesla from a “moderate sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Tesla from $226.00 to $259.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on Tesla from $351.00 to $373.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $326.50.

Tesla Trading Down 0.8 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.14 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 173.01, a P/E/G ratio of 6.22 and a beta of 2.34. The company has a fifty day moving average of $406.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $306.79.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. On average, research analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total value of $2,894,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,063,565.40. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,095,100. This trade represents a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 523,386 shares of company stock worth $195,995,200. Company insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Tesla by 1.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 3,571,793 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 2.8% during 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 buying an additional 1,655,203 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 4th quarter worth about $14,420,248,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in Tesla by 40.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 9,920,325 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in Tesla by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 24,377,822 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,377,970,000 after acquiring an additional 2,946,763 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.