Guggenheim Reaffirms Sell Rating for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)‘s stock had its “sell” rating reissued by analysts at Guggenheim in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $175.00 price target on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Guggenheim’s target price would suggest a potential downside of 56.28% from the company’s previous close.

TSLA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Tesla from $400.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Tesla from $315.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Wedbush lifted their target price on Tesla from $515.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Tesla from $250.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $318.31.

Tesla Trading Up 2.9 %

NASDAQ:TSLA opened at $400.28 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Tesla has a one year low of $138.80 and a one year high of $488.54. The company has a market cap of $1.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 109.67, a PEG ratio of 8.42 and a beta of 2.30. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $401.98 and a 200-day moving average of $297.28.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 13.07%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Tesla will post 2.01 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 Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.00, for a total value of $1,400,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,761,200. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total value of $34,602,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,868,508. The trade was a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 553,386 shares of company stock worth $196,305,796. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Valmark Advisers Inc. increased its stake in shares of Tesla by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 16,451 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $6,644,000 after buying an additional 1,664 shares during the period. Stanich Group LLC bought a new stake in Tesla in the 4th quarter worth $312,000. MOKAN Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at about $624,000. Lee Financial Co raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Lee Financial Co now owns 1,421 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $574,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JNBA Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. JNBA Financial Advisors now owns 1,330 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $537,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

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.