Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Price Target to $130.00

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price target cut by Wells Fargo & Company from $135.00 to $130.00 in a research note published on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have an underweight rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Tesla from $295.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “cautious” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, March 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Tesla from $492.00 to $474.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Benchmark began coverage on Tesla in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $475.00 price objective for the company. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $325.65.

Tesla Trading Up 3.9 %

Shares of Tesla stock opened at $249.98 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $351.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $320.31. The company has a market cap of $804.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 122.54, a PEG ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. Tesla has a 12-month low of $138.80 and a 12-month high of $488.54. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced 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%. On average, equities analysts expect that Tesla will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In related news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total value of $13,189,513.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 477,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $114,859,478.69. This represents a 10.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,672 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.73, for a total value of $718,046.56. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 26,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,242,273.50. This trade represents a 9.02 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 477,228 shares of company stock worth $166,849,043. Company insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,650,393 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $955,052,000 after buying an additional 194,796 shares in the last quarter. United Bank acquired a new stake in Tesla during the 3rd quarter worth $287,000. Haverford Trust Co lifted its position in Tesla by 37.2% in the third quarter. Haverford Trust Co now owns 2,268 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $593,000 after acquiring an additional 615 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zions Bancorporation N.A. boosted its stake in Tesla by 24.6% in the third quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 8,682 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,271,000 after acquiring an additional 1,715 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% 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.