Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Down 3.3% on Analyst Downgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock price traded down 3.3% during trading on Monday after Wedbush lowered their price target on the stock from $550.00 to $315.00. Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Tesla traded as low as $214.25 and last traded at $231.63. 80,790,562 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 14% from the average session volume of 94,254,869 shares. The stock had previously closed at $239.43.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on TSLA. Guggenheim reduced their target price on Tesla from $175.00 to $170.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Oppenheimer reiterated a “mixed” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on shares of Tesla from $420.00 to $345.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Tesla from $440.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Tesla from $320.00 to $275.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $305.31.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In related news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $384.04, for a total transaction of $43,162,255.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,643,400. The trade was a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $383.11, for a total value of $2,681,770.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at $41,745,581.15. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 370,228 shares of company stock worth $122,791,123. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Tesla by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,650,393 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $955,052,000 after purchasing an additional 194,796 shares during the last quarter. United Bank acquired a new stake in Tesla in the third quarter valued at $287,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Tesla by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 66,870 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $17,495,000 after buying an additional 3,222 shares during the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Tesla during the 3rd quarter worth about $357,000. Finally, Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at about $250,000. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Tesla Stock Down 4.2 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $305.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $324.24. The firm has a market cap of $737.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 112.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.02.

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

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.