Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Rating Upgraded by New Street Research

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was upgraded by equities researchers at New Street Research from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Monday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage presently has a $460.00 price target on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. New Street Research’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 16.64% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Tesla from $280.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $249.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Tesla from $197.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Tesla from $156.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Tesla has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $295.69.

Tesla Trading Down 4.1 %

NASDAQ:TSLA opened at $394.36 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 108.04, a PEG ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.30. Tesla has a one year low of $138.80 and a one year high of $488.54. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $368.03 and a 200-day moving average of $277.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.37.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.14. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.47 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.53 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Tesla will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $374.21, for a total transaction of $975,191.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,775,792.65. This represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kimbal Musk sold 60,500 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.23, for a total transaction of $15,138,915.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,563,220 shares in the company, valued at approximately $391,164,540.60. The trade was a 3.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 514,886 shares of company stock valued at $169,393,831. Insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at $283,000. One Wealth Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,093,000. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,718,000. Stonehearth Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Tesla in the fourth quarter worth about $722,000. Finally, Bank & Trust Co boosted its position in Tesla by 306.3% during the 4th quarter. Bank & Trust Co now owns 390 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $157,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.