Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the forty-two ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $293.67.

Several brokerages recently commented on TSLA. Stifel Nicolaus set a $450.00 price target on shares of Tesla and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $410.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, June 6th. BNP Paribas set a $137.00 price target on Tesla and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Glj Research reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $19.05 price objective (down from $24.86) on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Wedbush set a $500.00 price objective on Tesla in a research report on Thursday, June 5th.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kimbal Musk sold 91,588 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $357.39, for a total transaction of $32,732,635.32. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,463,220 shares in the company, valued at approximately $522,940,195.80. This represents a 5.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $1,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 26,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,737,500. This represents a 12.92% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 818,509 shares of company stock worth $273,791,775. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC bought a new position in Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $56,600,000. Focus Financial Network Inc. boosted its position in shares of Tesla by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 22,467 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $5,823,000 after purchasing an additional 670 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. boosted its position in shares of Tesla by 133.7% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. now owns 2,847 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,150,000 after purchasing an additional 1,629 shares during the last quarter. Harvard Management Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter worth $8,158,000. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its holdings in Tesla by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 322,300 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $130,158,000 after purchasing an additional 60,342 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Tesla Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA opened at $326.43 on Thursday. Tesla has a twelve month low of $169.80 and a twelve month high of $488.54. The company has a market capitalization of $1.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 160.02, a PEG ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $295.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $333.11. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.26). The company had revenue of $19.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.93 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Tesla will post 2.56 earnings per share 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.