Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Up 1.7% – Here’s What Happened

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock price shot up 1.7% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $367.34 and last traded at $360.09. 27,852,437 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 75,090,922 shares. The stock had previously closed at $354.11.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on TSLA. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Tesla from $250.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. KGI Securities upgraded Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $276.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Bank of America lowered Tesla from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $400.00 to $490.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on Tesla from $254.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Tesla from $270.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $326.50.

Tesla Trading Up 2.1 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.02. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $404.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $310.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 177.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 2.34.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. As a group, research analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.43, for a total transaction of $2,481,010.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,226,491.76. This represents a 6.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.63, for a total value of $41,163,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,222,802. The trade was a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 523,386 shares of company stock valued at $195,995,200 in the last ninety days. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Richmond Investment Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 4th quarter worth $705,000. Invst LLC increased its holdings in Tesla by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Invst LLC now owns 3,657 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,477,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. Cache Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,462,000. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. purchased a new position in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $170,808,000. Finally, CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,249,000. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.