Verity & Verity LLC Takes Position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Verity & Verity LLC bought a new stake in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 730 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock, valued at approximately $295,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. World Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Tesla by 1,248.9% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 199,229 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $52,124,000 after purchasing an additional 184,459 shares in the last quarter. Destination Wealth Management increased its position in Tesla by 12.1% during the 3rd quarter. Destination Wealth Management now owns 12,597 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $3,296,000 after purchasing an additional 1,359 shares in the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd increased its position in Tesla by 59.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 117,457 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $30,593,000 after purchasing an additional 43,685 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in Tesla by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 309,382 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $80,944,000 after purchasing an additional 9,919 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in Tesla by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 144,482 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $37,801,000 after acquiring an additional 1,741 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on TSLA. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Tesla from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Tesla from $280.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Guggenheim boosted 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. Finally, Glj Research reissued a “sell” rating and set a $24.86 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.33.

Tesla Stock Performance

NASDAQ TSLA opened at $426.50 on Monday. Tesla, Inc. has a 52-week low of $138.80 and a 52-week high of $488.54. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $389.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $288.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84. The company has a market capitalization of $1.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 116.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.53 and a beta of 2.30.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The business had revenue of $25.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.44, for a total value of $35,339,911.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 85,000 shares in the company, valued at $26,727,400. This trade represents a 56.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total transaction of $2,894,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,063,565.40. The trade was a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 621,886 shares of company stock worth $213,451,751. Insiders own 20.70% 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.