Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Down 7% Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) were down 7% during trading on Monday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $325.00 to $275.00. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Tesla traded as low as $223.67 and last traded at $224.45. Approximately 35,323,137 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 63% from the average daily volume of 95,801,441 shares. The stock had previously closed at $241.37.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Oppenheimer restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Tesla from $430.00 to $375.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Wedbush decreased their price target on shares of Tesla from $550.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Glj Research reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Tesla from $490.00 to $380.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Tesla currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $290.66.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other Tesla news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total value of $13,189,513.04. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 477,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $114,859,478.69. The trade was a 10.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 26,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,737,500. This trade represents a 12.92 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 374,228 shares of company stock worth $123,791,123 in the last three months. 20.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TSLA. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter worth $14,420,248,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Tesla by 40.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 34,661,400 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $13,997,660,000 after buying an additional 9,920,325 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Tesla by 27,378.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,812,316 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $2,542,960,000 after acquiring an additional 9,776,607 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC boosted its stake in Tesla by 36,790.0% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 8,660,672 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $3,497,526,000 after purchasing an additional 8,637,195 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Tesla by 4,963.0% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,834,707 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,356,288,000 after purchasing an additional 5,719,466 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Tesla Stock Down 5.7 %

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $271.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $323.14. The firm has a market cap of $731.76 billion, a PE ratio of 111.52, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.02 and a quick ratio of 1.61.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a return on equity of 10.31% and a net margin of 7.26%. On average, analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS 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.