Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) PT Lowered to $196.00

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price objective lowered by stock analysts at Citigroup from $224.00 to $196.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 11.50% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Tesla from $220.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $297.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Tesla from $250.00 to $225.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Tesla from $225.00 to $185.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $204.63.

Tesla Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:TSLA opened at $175.79 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $187.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $222.06. The firm has a market cap of $559.85 billion, a PE ratio of 40.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.01 and a beta of 2.41. Tesla has a 12-month low of $152.37 and a 12-month high of $299.29.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.03). Tesla had a net margin of 15.50% and a return on equity of 16.62%. The firm had revenue of $25.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.07 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Tesla will post 2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 687 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.11, for a total value of $121,674.57. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 63,171 shares in the company, valued at $11,188,215.81. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.17, for a total value of $2,143,785.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 31,230 shares in the company, valued at $6,376,229.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 687 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.11, for a total value of $121,674.57. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 63,171 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,188,215.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 198,598 shares of company stock worth $36,952,434 over the last three months. 20.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Wyrmwood Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Tesla in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Lam Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Tesla in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Alpha Paradigm Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Halpern Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Tesla by 1,111.1% in the 3rd quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. now owns 109 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.