Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Rating Lowered by Bank of America

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was downgraded by research analysts at Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They presently have a $490.00 target price on the electric vehicle producer’s stock, up from their previous target price of $400.00. Bank of America‘s target price points to a potential upside of 24.07% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on TSLA. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on Tesla from $298.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. HSBC reaffirmed a “reduce” rating and issued a $124.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Friday, October 11th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Tesla from $197.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $195.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.69.

Tesla Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ TSLA opened at $394.94 on Tuesday. Tesla has a 52 week low of $138.80 and a 52 week high of $488.54. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $370.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $278.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The firm has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 108.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.30.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Tesla will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $1,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,258,000. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kimbal Musk sold 60,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.23, for a total transaction of $15,138,915.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,563,220 shares in the company, valued at $391,164,540.60. This represents a 3.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 621,886 shares of company stock valued at $213,451,751 in the last three months. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wealth Group Ltd acquired a new stake in Tesla during the 4th quarter worth $275,000. Cumberland Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter worth about $267,000. First Hawaiian Bank boosted its position in Tesla by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 10,724 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $4,331,000 after acquiring an additional 1,573 shares during the last quarter. Private Client Services LLC purchased a new stake in Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at about $206,000. Finally, Fulton Bank N.A. raised its holdings in Tesla by 18.6% in the 4th quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 25,865 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $10,445,000 after acquiring an additional 4,059 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.