Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Cut to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note published on Friday.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on TSLA. Glj Research reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $24.86 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on Tesla from $254.00 to $278.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. KGI Securities upgraded Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $276.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Mizuho restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $515.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $318.31.

Tesla Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of Tesla stock opened at $404.60 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $404.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $299.34. The stock has a market cap of $1.30 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 198.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.08 and a beta of 2.30. Tesla has a twelve month low of $138.80 and a twelve month high of $488.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a return on equity of 10.54% and a net margin of 7.26%. Equities research analysts forecast that Tesla will post 2.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total transaction of $34,602,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,868,508. This trade represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at $45,063,565.40. The trade was a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 553,386 shares of company stock worth $196,305,796 over the last quarter. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Transcendent Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the third quarter valued at $29,000. Clean Yield Group boosted its position in Tesla by 60.0% during the 3rd quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Tesla during the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA purchased a new position in Tesla during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Tesla in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $48,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.