Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Up 2.2% on Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) was up 2.2% on Friday after Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $249.00 to $313.00. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $320.13 and last traded at $318.10. Approximately 44,128,813 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 54% from the average daily volume of 95,711,000 shares. The stock had previously closed at $311.18.

TSLA has been the topic of a number of other reports. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Tesla from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $310.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Tesla from $274.00 to $258.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Roth Mkm reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $85.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $230.18.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other Tesla news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total transaction of $34,602,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,868,508. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 297 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.77, for a total transaction of $65,865.69. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,967,479.07. The trade was a 0.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 188,797 shares of company stock valued at $57,616,781 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Tesla by 7.4% during the third quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,562 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $932,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the period. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Tesla by 9.2% in the third quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. now owns 38,306 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $10,022,000 after purchasing an additional 3,216 shares during the period. Frisch Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Tesla by 5.6% during the third quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,895 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $757,000 after buying an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC grew its position in Tesla by 18.0% during the third quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 5,267 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,378,000 after buying an additional 803 shares during the period. Finally, Brophy Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Tesla in the third quarter valued at about $1,126,000. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Tesla Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $1.03 trillion, a PE ratio of 87.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.73 and a beta of 2.29. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $250.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $219.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The business had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current year.

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.