Royal Bank Of Canada Boosts Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Price Target to $500.00

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price objective boosted by Royal Bank Of Canada from $325.00 to $500.00 in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Royal Bank Of Canada’s price target suggests a potential upside of 20.92% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Guggenheim restated a “sell” rating and set a $175.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. UBS Group set a $247.00 price target on Tesla in a report on Monday, October 6th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $475.00 price target (up from $350.00) on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, June 26th. William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $483.00 price target on Tesla and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and eight have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $354.67.

Tesla Stock Performance

Shares of TSLA stock opened at $413.49 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $375.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $327.89. Tesla has a one year low of $212.11 and a one year high of $488.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 239.01, a PEG ratio of 15.01 and a beta of 2.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.55.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.40 EPS 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 company had revenue of $22.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.52 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Tesla will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 120,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.29, for a total value of $42,034,800.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 697,031 shares in the company, valued at $244,162,988.99. This trade represents a 14.69% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.38, for a total value of $918,302.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 9,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,473,057.28. This represents a 20.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 202,606 shares of company stock worth $75,588,902 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 19.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC raised its position in Tesla by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC now owns 3,118 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $1,387,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Holos Integrated Wealth LLC raised its position in Tesla by 10.8% in the 2nd quarter. Holos Integrated Wealth LLC now owns 309 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $102,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Dominguez Wealth Management Solutions Inc. raised its position in Tesla by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Dominguez Wealth Management Solutions Inc. now owns 704 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $313,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. First Merchants Corp increased its position in shares of Tesla by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 2,413 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $767,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kaye Capital Management increased its position in shares of Tesla by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Kaye Capital Management now owns 1,047 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $333,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.