Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Up 2.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s share price traded up 2.1% during mid-day trading on Friday after Evercore ISI raised their price target on the stock from $195.00 to $275.00. Evercore ISI currently has an in-line rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $389.95 and last traded at $387.10. 28,789,549 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 57% from the average session volume of 67,481,227 shares. The stock had previously closed at $379.28.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on TSLA. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Monday, November 18th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Guggenheim raised their price objective on Tesla from $156.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Phillip Securities lowered Tesla from a “moderate sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $283.39.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.54, for a total transaction of $35,254,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,903,716. The trade was a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $374.21, for a total value of $975,191.26. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,775,792.65. The trade was a 2.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 514,886 shares of company stock valued at $169,393,831 over the last ninety days. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new stake in Tesla during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Tesla by 168.8% in the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Transcendent Capital Group LLC bought a new position in Tesla during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Clean Yield Group lifted its position in Tesla by 60.0% in the third quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Tesla during the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Tesla Stock Up 8.2 %

The firm has a market cap of $1.32 trillion, a PE ratio of 112.45, a PEG ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $362.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $273.14.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 13.07%. The firm had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.47 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.