Tesla’s (TSLA) “Hold” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their hold rating on shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) in a research report report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on TSLA. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Tesla from $295.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. New Street Research upgraded Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $460.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $230.00 to $515.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Tesla from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $365.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Wednesday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $318.31.

Tesla Stock Up 2.9 %

Shares of Tesla stock opened at $400.28 on Thursday. Tesla has a twelve month low of $138.80 and a twelve month high of $488.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 196.22, a PEG ratio of 8.08 and a beta of 2.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $401.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $297.28.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 10.54% and a net margin of 7.26%. Equities research analysts forecast that Tesla will post 2.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,775,792.65. This represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.44, for a total transaction of $35,339,911.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 85,000 shares in the company, valued at $26,727,400. This represents a 56.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 553,386 shares of company stock valued at $196,305,796. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Tesla in the second quarter worth about $48,000. Cim LLC bought a new position in Tesla in the second quarter valued at approximately $292,000. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Tesla in the second quarter valued at approximately $269,000. Centaurus Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 41.0% in the second quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 23,470 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $4,644,000 after buying an additional 6,823 shares during the period. Finally, Ashburton Jersey Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Tesla during the second quarter worth $63,000. 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.