KGI Securities Upgrades Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) to Outperform

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was upgraded by KGI Securities from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $276.00 target price on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. KGI Securities’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 2.53% from the stock’s current price.

TSLA has been the topic of a number of other reports. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Tesla from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. William Blair initiated coverage on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $310.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $219.00.

Tesla Trading Up 3.3 %

Tesla stock opened at $269.19 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $858.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.67, a PEG ratio of 6.24 and a beta of 2.29. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $229.47 and its 200-day moving average is $206.79. Tesla has a 1 year low of $138.80 and a 1 year high of $271.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.91.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 10.41%. Tesla’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Tesla will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $2,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,258,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $2,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,258,000. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 297 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.77, for a total value of $65,865.69. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,967,479.07. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 25.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in Tesla by 60.2% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 549,008 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $108,638,000 after buying an additional 206,248 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc grew its position in shares of Tesla by 138.1% during the second quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 5,969 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,181,000 after purchasing an additional 3,462 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Tesla by 12.9% during the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 236,802 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $46,858,000 after buying an additional 27,130 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in Tesla during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,941,000. Finally, Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC bought a new position in Tesla during the first quarter valued at approximately $79,000. 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.