Tesla’s (TSLA) “Hold” Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)‘s stock had its “hold” rating restated by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports.

TSLA has been the topic of several other research reports. UBS Group dropped their price target on Tesla from $225.00 to $165.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on Tesla from $267.00 to $234.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research report on Friday, April 19th. HSBC lowered their target price on Tesla from $143.00 to $138.00 and set a “reduce” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Tesla from $225.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $186.70.

Tesla Stock Performance

TSLA opened at $170.18 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $175.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $208.64. Tesla has a 1 year low of $138.80 and a 1 year high of $299.29. The company has a market capitalization of $541.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 2.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.25.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.03). Tesla had a net margin of 14.37% and a return on equity of 13.68%. The firm had revenue of $25.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.07 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Tesla will post 1.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 687 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.11, for a total transaction of $121,674.57. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 63,171 shares in the company, valued at $11,188,215.81. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 93,706 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.73, for a total value of $18,247,369.38. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 15,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,920,950. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 687 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.11, for a total value of $121,674.57. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 63,171 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,188,215.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 209,098 shares of company stock worth $38,802,534 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 25.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $7,844,757,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Tesla by 25,990.7% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 6,202,806 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $1,541,273,000 after purchasing an additional 6,179,032 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Tesla by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 229,806,372 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $57,102,287,000 after purchasing an additional 3,866,361 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its position in Tesla by 34.0% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 9,032,207 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,260,039,000 after purchasing an additional 2,293,344 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its position in Tesla by 7.8% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 30,160,747 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $7,546,823,000 after purchasing an additional 2,177,397 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.