Stifel Nicolaus Lowers Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Price Target to $474.00

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price objective reduced by stock analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $492.00 to $474.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ target price suggests a potential upside of 32.42% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on TSLA. New Street Research raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $460.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. KGI Securities raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $276.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Bank of America lowered Tesla from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $400.00 to $490.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Tesla from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Tesla from $270.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Tesla presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $321.71.

Tesla Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of Tesla stock traded down $3.67 on Monday, hitting $357.95. 41,174,313 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 73,316,586. Tesla has a one year low of $138.80 and a one year high of $488.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.02 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The company has a fifty day moving average of $408.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $304.55. The company has a market capitalization of $1.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 175.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.22 and a beta of 2.34.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Tesla will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.44, for a total value of $35,339,911.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 85,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,727,400. This represents a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.43, for a total transaction of $2,481,010.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,226,491.76. This trade represents a 6.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 560,776 shares of company stock valued at $203,744,862. Company insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Tesla by 1.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 59,356,401 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $15,469,792,000 after acquiring an additional 1,022,589 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Tesla by 3.5% during the third 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 boosted its stake in shares of Tesla by 13.7% during 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 valued at $6,377,970,000 after purchasing an additional 2,946,763 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Tesla by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,325,850 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,996,871,000 after purchasing an additional 780,026 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Tesla by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 12,957,272 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $5,117,345,000 after purchasing an additional 159,508 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.