Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Down 2% on Insider Selling

Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) dropped 2% during trading on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $320.12 and last traded at $322.51. Approximately 23,978,306 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 76% from the average daily volume of 100,476,541 shares. The stock had previously closed at $329.13.

Specifically, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.81, for a total value of $4,857,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 67,600 shares in the company, valued at $21,889,556. This represents a 18.16% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on TSLA. Truist Financial set a $280.00 price objective on Tesla in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Tesla from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Baird R W lowered shares of Tesla from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 9th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Tesla from $225.00 to $190.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Tesla to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $293.67.

Tesla Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $1.02 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 174.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.36 and a beta of 2.47. The company’s 50-day moving average is $302.42 and its 200-day moving average is $332.66.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.26). Tesla had a return on equity of 9.02% and a net margin of 6.66%. The company had revenue of $19.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.45 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. Howe & Rusling Inc. increased its position in shares of Tesla by 26.0% during the 1st quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc. now owns 1,087 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 224 shares in the last quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Tesla by 18.9% during the 1st quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,115 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $807,000 after purchasing an additional 496 shares in the last quarter. Optima Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Tesla by 17.3% during the first quarter. Optima Capital LLC now owns 990 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $257,000 after buying an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. Kondo Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Tesla by 17.8% during the first quarter. Kondo Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 951 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $246,000 after buying an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Compass Financial Services Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla during the first quarter worth approximately $54,000. 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.