Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading 4.6% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) was up 4.6% on Wednesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $270.00 to $325.00. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $418.96 and last traded at $414.56. Approximately 28,882,209 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 62% from the average daily volume of 75,177,305 shares. The stock had previously closed at $396.36.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Tesla from $411.00 to $492.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Tesla from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Tesla from $280.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. KGI Securities raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $276.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Glj Research reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $24.86 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.33.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,063,565.40. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total value of $34,602,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at $1,868,508. This trade represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 621,886 shares of company stock valued at $213,451,751 in the last ninety days. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. World Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Tesla by 1,248.9% in the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 199,229 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $52,124,000 after acquiring an additional 184,459 shares in the last quarter. Destination Wealth Management lifted its position in Tesla by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter. Destination Wealth Management now owns 12,597 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $3,296,000 after acquiring an additional 1,359 shares in the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd lifted its position in Tesla by 59.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 117,457 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $30,593,000 after acquiring an additional 43,685 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its position in Tesla by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 309,382 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $80,944,000 after acquiring an additional 9,919 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its position in Tesla by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 144,482 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $37,801,000 after acquiring an additional 1,741 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Tesla Price Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $382.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $284.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 117.32, a PEG ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.30. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 13.07%. The company’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 EPS 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.