Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Monday after Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $249.00 to $313.00. The stock had previously closed at $320.72, but opened at $340.73. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Tesla shares last traded at $340.84, with a volume of 29,883,541 shares.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Citigroup cut their price objective on Tesla from $274.00 to $258.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Robert W. Baird reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $280.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. KGI Securities raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $276.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Wedbush upped their price objective on Tesla from $300.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have given a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.18.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other Tesla news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 297 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.77, for a total transaction of $65,865.69. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 67,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,967,479.07. This trade represents a 0.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total transaction of $34,602,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,868,508. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 188,797 shares of company stock valued at $57,616,781. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Tesla by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 59,356,401 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $15,469,792,000 after buying an additional 1,022,589 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Tesla by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 24,741,075 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,473,008,000 after purchasing an additional 828,308 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in Tesla by 13.7% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 24,377,822 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $6,377,970,000 after acquiring an additional 2,946,763 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Tesla by 1.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,545,824 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $4,328,884,000 after acquiring an additional 301,968 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in Tesla by 11.9% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 12,201,212 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $3,192,203,000 after acquiring an additional 1,294,093 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a market capitalization of $1.11 trillion, a PE ratio of 87.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.42 and a beta of 2.29. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $252.30 and its 200-day moving average is $221.01.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $25.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.