Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Sets New 52-Week Low Following Analyst Downgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares reached a new 52-week low on Thursday after Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded the stock from a buy rating to a hold rating. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft now has a $123.00 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $189.00. Tesla traded as low as $148.70 and last traded at $149.85, with a volume of 21207353 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $155.45.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. China Renaissance began coverage on Tesla in a report on Monday, February 26th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Daiwa Capital Markets lowered Tesla from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $245.00 to $195.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price target on Tesla from $150.00 to $120.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Tesla from $190.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $194.70.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other news, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.17, for a total transaction of $2,143,785.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 31,230 shares in the company, valued at $6,376,229.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Tesla news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 687 shares of the 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.17, for a total value of $2,143,785.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 31,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,376,229.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 209,098 shares of company stock worth $38,802,534 over the last three months. Company insiders own 25.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TSLA. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at about $7,844,757,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Tesla by 180,125.4% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 26,851,778 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $3,307,602,000 after purchasing an additional 26,836,879 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Tesla by 203.9% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 20,208,699 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $5,360,358,000 after purchasing an additional 13,558,882 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Tesla by 25,990.7% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 6,202,806 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,541,273,000 after purchasing an additional 6,179,032 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Tesla by 26.3% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 25,427,168 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $3,132,119,000 after purchasing an additional 5,292,464 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The company has a market cap of $468.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 2.39. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $178.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $211.48.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $25.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.64 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 16.62% and a net margin of 15.50%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.07 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.97 EPS 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.