Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday after Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price target on the stock from $490.00 to $482.00. The stock had previously closed at $438.97, but opened at $420.00. Canaccord Genuity Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Tesla shares last traded at $424.92, with a volume of 23,000,783 shares trading hands.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on TSLA. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Tesla from $400.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. CICC Research increased their price target on shares of Tesla from $360.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Barclays reissued a “negative” rating and set a $350.00 price target (up from $275.00) on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Tesla from $280.00 to $406.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and eleven have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $380.97.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 20,000 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 47,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,314,500. This represents a 29.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.38, for a total transaction of $918,302.28. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 9,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 202,606 shares of company stock worth $75,588,902. Company insiders own 19.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of TSLA. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the second quarter valued at about $11,839,824,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Tesla by 322.1% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 26,590,525 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,891,201,000 after buying an additional 20,291,139 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the first quarter valued at about $3,247,619,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 6,435,598 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Tesla by 1.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 251,390,681 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $79,856,764,000 after buying an additional 4,502,976 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Tesla Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $396.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $338.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.49 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 299.32, a PEG ratio of 15.78 and a beta of 2.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. Tesla had a net margin of 5.51% and a return on equity of 6.72%. The firm had revenue of $28.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $24.98 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.72 earnings per share. Tesla’s revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Tesla Company Profile

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.