Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Up 1.3% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 1.3% during trading on Monday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $411.00 to $492.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $426.43 and last traded at $415.86. Approximately 35,273,547 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 55% from the average daily volume of 78,854,469 shares. The stock had previously closed at $410.44.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $360.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Mizuho upgraded Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $230.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Glj Research reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $24.86 target price on shares of Tesla in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of Tesla from $156.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Nine 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.69.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other Tesla news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.06, for a total transaction of $39,792,803.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,095,100. The trade was a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $1,000,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at $26,258,000. This represents a 3.67 % 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 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. Transcendent Capital Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Clean Yield Group lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Tesla by 168.8% in the 2nd 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 last quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new position in shares of Tesla in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla during the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Tesla Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 108.04, a PEG ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.30. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $368.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $277.49.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

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.