Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Up 2.2% on Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares traded up 2.2% on Friday after Robert W. Baird upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to an outperform rating. Robert W. Baird now has a $548.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $320.00. Tesla traded as high as $429.47 and last traded at $426.07. 87,100,699 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 16% from the average session volume of 103,369,977 shares. The stock had previously closed at $416.85.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus set a $440.00 price objective on Tesla in a report on Friday, September 5th. Guggenheim restated a “sell” rating and issued a $175.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Tesla from $390.00 to $375.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. UBS Group set a $290.00 price objective on Tesla in a report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and nine have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $317.70.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $292.89, for a total value of $1,171,560.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 5,924 shares in the company, valued at $1,735,080.36. This trade represents a 40.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director James R. Murdoch sold 120,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.29, for a total value of $42,034,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 697,031 shares in the company, valued at approximately $244,162,988.99. This represents a 14.69% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 208,606 shares of company stock worth $77,360,462 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Tesla by 1.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 251,390,681 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $79,856,764,000 after buying an additional 4,502,976 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Tesla by 2.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 64,767,993 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $20,480,477,000 after buying an additional 1,269,304 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Tesla during the second quarter worth about $11,839,824,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Tesla by 322.1% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 26,590,525 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $6,891,201,000 after buying an additional 20,291,139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Tesla by 5.9% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 20,225,098 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $6,424,705,000 after buying an additional 1,134,678 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $1.42 trillion, a P/E ratio of 246.28, a PEG ratio of 14.54 and a beta of 2.06. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $340.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $308.15.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.03). Tesla had a net margin of 6.54% and a return on equity of 7.98%. The business had revenue of $22.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.52 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.