Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC Decreases Stock Position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC reduced its position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,082 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after selling 51 shares during the quarter. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $1,649,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Transcendent Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Tesla in the third quarter valued at $29,000. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA purchased a new position in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at $46,000. PayPay Securities Corp grew its position in shares of Tesla by 130.2% in the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 122 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Tesla in the third quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Finley Financial LLC purchased a new position in Tesla during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $64,000. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Tesla Stock Performance

Shares of TSLA stock opened at $284.65 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $382.44 and a 200 day moving average of $318.01. Tesla, Inc. has a 52 week low of $138.80 and a 52 week high of $488.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $915.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 139.53, a PEG ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.34. 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 announced its quarterly 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 return on equity of 10.31% and a net margin of 7.26%. As a group, research analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on TSLA. Roth Mkm raised shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. New Street Research raised shares of 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. Morgan Stanley restated a “top pick” rating and set a $430.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research report on Monday. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Tesla from $480.00 to $440.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark assumed coverage on Tesla in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $475.00 target price for the company. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $318.77.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $374.21, for a total value of $975,191.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at $40,775,792.65. This trade represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.54, for a total transaction of $35,254,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,903,716. This trade represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 403,996 shares of company stock worth $153,721,387 over the last three months. Company insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Tesla 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.