Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Rating Upgraded by Baird R W

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Baird R W from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Friday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on TSLA. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Tesla from $305.00 to $341.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $475.00 price objective (up from $350.00) on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $320.00 to $548.00 in a research note on Friday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and nine have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Tesla presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $317.70.

Tesla Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA opened at $426.07 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.42 trillion, a PE ratio of 246.28, a PEG ratio of 14.86 and a beta of 2.06. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Tesla has a 1-year low of $212.11 and a 1-year high of $488.54. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $340.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $308.35.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $22.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.18 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 7.98% and a net margin of 6.54%.Tesla’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.52 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Tesla will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 20,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.75, for a total transaction of $7,275,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 47,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,314,500. The trade was a 29.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director James R. Murdoch sold 60,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $422.68, for a total transaction of $25,360,800.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 637,031 shares in the company, valued at approximately $269,260,263.08. This trade represents a 8.61% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 208,606 shares of company stock worth $77,360,462 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Tesla in the second quarter valued at $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 purchasing an additional 20,291,139 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Tesla in the first quarter valued at about $3,247,619,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Tesla by 27,378.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,812,316 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,542,960,000 after acquiring an additional 9,776,607 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in Tesla by 581,880.5% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 6,436,704 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,044,683,000 after acquiring an additional 6,435,598 shares during the last quarter. 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.