Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares gapped up before the market opened on Monday after Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $249.00 to $313.00. The stock had previously closed at $320.72, but opened at $340.73. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Tesla shares last traded at $340.84, with a volume of 29,883,541 shares trading hands.

TSLA has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Glj Research reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $24.86 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Citigroup decreased their price objective 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. Guggenheim raised their target price on Tesla from $153.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $245.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Tesla currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.44, for a total value of $35,339,911.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares in the company, valued at $26,727,400. The trade was a 56.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $2,000,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,258,000. This trade represents a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 301,187 shares of company stock worth $92,956,692. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Bank & Trust Co acquired a new stake in Tesla during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new stake in Tesla in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Tesla by 168.8% in the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Transcendent Capital Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Tesla in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Clean Yield Group grew its position in shares of Tesla by 60.0% during the third quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Stock Up 2.1 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $257.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $223.29. The firm has a market cap of $1.11 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 94.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.42 and a beta of 2.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $25.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share 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.