Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Down 2.8% – Here’s What Happened

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s share price dropped 2.8% on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $406.31 and last traded at $414.43. Approximately 39,991,064 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 48% from the average daily volume of 77,552,891 shares. The stock had previously closed at $426.50.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on TSLA shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on Tesla from $270.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Tesla from $298.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. New Street Research upgraded shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $460.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $230.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Tesla from $411.00 to $492.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Tesla has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $304.94.

Tesla Stock Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $391.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $290.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 114.73, a P/E/G ratio of 8.60 and a beta of 2.30. 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 (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.53 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 24th. The stock was 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 directly owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,258,000. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,727,400. The trade was a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 621,886 shares of company stock worth $213,451,751 over the last 90 days. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Stewardship Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Tesla by 12.7% in the fourth quarter. Stewardship Advisors LLC now owns 1,547 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $625,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. Grange Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Tesla during the 4th quarter worth $628,000. Tributary Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at about $353,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. grew its position in Tesla by 30.5% in the fourth quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 2,235 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $902,000 after acquiring an additional 522 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lantz Financial LLC increased its stake in Tesla by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 1,379 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $557,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

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.