Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Given New $455.00 Price Target at Stifel Nicolaus

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price objective decreased by Stifel Nicolaus from $474.00 to $455.00 in a research report report published on Monday, MarketBeat reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Tesla from $440.00 to $370.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Benchmark began coverage on Tesla in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $475.00 price target for the company. Barclays upped their target price on Tesla from $270.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Roth Capital raised Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Roth Mkm raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $85.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $317.75.

Tesla Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA opened at $282.76 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $312.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $323.20. Tesla has a twelve month low of $138.80 and a twelve month high of $488.54. The company has a market capitalization of $909.50 billion, a PE ratio of 138.61, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

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

Insider Activity

In other Tesla news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total transaction of $13,189,513.04. Following the transaction, the director now owns 477,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $114,859,478.69. The trade was a 10.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total value of $2,894,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,063,565.40. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 477,228 shares of company stock valued at $166,849,043 in the last 90 days. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. True Wealth Design LLC increased its position in shares of Tesla by 79.5% during the 4th quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 70 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Tesla by 75.6% in the 4th quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 79 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. GS Investments Inc. grew its position in shares of Tesla by 193.3% in the 4th quarter. GS Investments Inc. now owns 88 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Navigoe LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, CoreFirst Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

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.