Royal Bank of Canada Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price objective upped by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $249.00 to $313.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective would suggest a potential downside of 2.41% from the stock’s previous close.

TSLA has been the topic of several other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Tesla from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, September 5th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Argus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $286.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $195.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Tesla from $274.00 to $258.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.18.

Tesla Stock Up 3.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA opened at $320.72 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market cap of $1.03 trillion, a P/E ratio of 87.87, a PEG ratio of 10.73 and a beta of 2.29. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $252.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $220.46. Tesla has a 12-month low of $138.80 and a 12-month high of $358.64.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. Tesla had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 13.07%. The firm had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.47 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. Tesla’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Tesla will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 297 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.77, for a total transaction 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 $14,967,479.07. The trade was a 0.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.00, for a total transaction of $1,400,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at $36,761,200. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 188,797 shares of company stock worth $57,616,781. 20.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Tesla by 1.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 59,356,401 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $15,469,792,000 after buying an additional 1,022,589 shares during the period. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,562 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $932,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the period. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. boosted its position in shares of Tesla by 9.2% in the third quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. now owns 38,306 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $10,022,000 after acquiring an additional 3,216 shares during the last quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Tesla by 5.6% in the third quarter. Frisch Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,895 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $757,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the period. Finally, Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC increased its position in Tesla by 18.0% during the third quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 5,267 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,378,000 after purchasing an additional 803 shares during 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.