Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Up 2% on Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s share price shot up 2% during trading on Thursday after Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on the stock from $123.00 to $136.00. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft currently has a hold rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $166.38 and last traded at $165.39. 45,566,008 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 55% from the average session volume of 102,183,336 shares. The stock had previously closed at $162.13.

TSLA has been the topic of a number of other reports. HSBC decreased their price objective on shares of Tesla from $138.00 to $120.00 and set a “reduce” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Tesla from $176.00 to $162.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Daiwa Capital Markets lowered Tesla from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $245.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on Tesla from $150.00 to $120.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $186.70.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In related news, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of the business’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,376,229.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 31,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,376,229.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 687 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.11, for a total transaction of $121,674.57. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 63,171 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,188,215.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 209,098 shares of company stock valued at $38,802,534 in the last 90 days. 25.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Tesla by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 229,806,372 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $57,102,287,000 after acquiring an additional 3,866,361 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Tesla in the 4th quarter valued at about $7,844,757,000. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 30,160,747 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $7,546,823,000 after buying an additional 2,177,397 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Tesla by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,040,734 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $7,266,572,000 after buying an additional 269,182 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Tesla by 3.4% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 27,542,824 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,891,765,000 after acquiring an additional 909,170 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Tesla Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $535.97 billion, a PE ratio of 42.93, a PEG ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 2.39. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $175.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $208.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

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 company had revenue of $25.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.64 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 13.18% and a net margin of 14.37%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.07 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current 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.