Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Rating Increased to Buy at TD Cowen

TD Cowen upgraded shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Friday morning, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $388.00 price objective on the electric vehicle producer’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $180.00.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday. Benchmark initiated coverage on shares of Tesla in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $475.00 target price for the company. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Tesla from a “moderate sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. New Street Research upgraded shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $460.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Tesla has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $327.37.

Tesla Stock Performance

NASDAQ:TSLA opened at $262.67 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $367.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $318.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.02 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The firm has a market cap of $844.88 billion, a PE ratio of 128.76, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. Tesla has a 1-year low of $138.80 and a 1-year high of $488.54.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its 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 net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. On average, equities analysts expect that Tesla will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total transaction of $2,894,920.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,063,565.40. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.63, for a total transaction of $41,163,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at $2,222,802. This trade represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 422,452 shares of company stock valued at $153,659,530 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Aegis Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter worth about $252,000. Alpha Wealth Funds LLC bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter worth about $1,291,000. Copia Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter worth about $571,000. IronOak Wealth LLC. bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter worth about $3,832,000. Finally, Arcadia Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter worth about $683,000. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Tesla Company 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.