Prudential Financial Inc. Raises Position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,637,631 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,001 shares during the period. Tesla makes up about 1.5% of Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Prudential Financial Inc. owned 0.08% of Tesla worth $1,065,181,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Horrell Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Tesla by 75.6% in the fourth quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 79 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. GS Investments Inc. increased its stake in Tesla by 193.3% in the 4th quarter. GS Investments Inc. now owns 88 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA purchased a new position in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter worth about $46,000. Finally, Parkworth Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,000. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Tesla news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.63, for a total transaction of $41,163,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,222,802. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,063,565.40. The trade was a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 477,228 shares of company stock worth $166,849,043. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Tesla Stock Up 5.3 %

NASDAQ TSLA opened at $248.71 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Tesla, Inc. has a 52 week low of $138.80 and a 52 week high of $488.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $799.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 121.92, a PEG ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. The company has a fifty day moving average of $335.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $321.15.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a return on equity of 10.31% and a net margin of 7.26%. On average, analysts predict that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on TSLA. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Tesla from $492.00 to $474.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “cautious” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Tesla from $430.00 to $410.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Glj Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $404.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $318.93.

Tesla 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.