Venturi Wealth Management LLC Reduces Position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Venturi Wealth Management LLC decreased its position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 18.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,228 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after selling 2,902 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $5,342,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of TSLA. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 2.8% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,098,717 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $287,457,000 after purchasing an additional 29,669 shares during the period. Courier Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the third quarter valued at approximately $262,000. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 16.7% in the third quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,613 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $684,000 after purchasing an additional 374 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Tesla by 34.1% in the third quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,166 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,087,000 after buying an additional 1,059 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bogart Wealth LLC raised its stake in Tesla by 80.3% in the third quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 2,324 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $608,000 after buying an additional 1,035 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Price Performance

NASDAQ:TSLA opened at $337.80 on Friday. Tesla, Inc. has a one year low of $138.80 and a one year high of $488.54. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 165.59, a PEG ratio of 5.97 and a beta of 2.34. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $400.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $312.40.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. 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 stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.43, for a total transaction of $2,481,010.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 is available through this link. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.54, for a total transaction of $35,254,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,903,716. The trade was a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 523,386 shares of company stock valued at $195,995,200. 20.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Bank of America downgraded shares of Tesla from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $400.00 to $490.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Glj Research reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $24.86 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Tesla from $480.00 to $440.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Roth Capital raised shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $515.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Nine 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $326.50.

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.