Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Stifel Nicolaus Analyst Says

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its target price hoisted by investment analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $411.00 to $492.00 in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ target price points to a potential upside of 24.76% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on TSLA. Barclays increased their target price on Tesla from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Tesla from $280.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Tesla from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on shares of Tesla from $298.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $295.69.

Tesla Price Performance

Tesla stock opened at $394.36 on Monday. Tesla has a 12-month low of $138.80 and a 12-month high of $488.54. 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 stock has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 108.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.30. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $368.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $277.49.

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

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $1,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,258,000. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total transaction of $34,602,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,868,508. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 514,886 shares of company stock worth $169,393,831. 20.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Tesla by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 59,356,401 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $15,469,792,000 after purchasing an additional 1,022,589 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Tesla by 3.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 24,741,075 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $6,473,008,000 after buying an additional 828,308 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Tesla by 13.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 2,946,763 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Tesla by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,545,824 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $4,328,884,000 after acquiring an additional 301,968 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in Tesla by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 12,201,212 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $3,192,203,000 after acquiring an additional 1,294,093 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

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.