Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Up 1.4% After Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) was up 1.4% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $400.00 to $430.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $422.64 and last traded at $409.05. Approximately 34,813,041 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 53% from the average daily volume of 74,755,406 shares. The stock had previously closed at $403.31.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on TSLA. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Tesla from $295.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Mizuho upgraded Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $230.00 to $515.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on Tesla from $255.00 to $365.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. StockNews.com upgraded Tesla from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on shares of Tesla from $298.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $296.60.

Insider Activity

In other Tesla news, Director Kimbal Musk sold 60,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.23, for a total transaction of $15,138,915.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,563,220 shares in the company, valued at $391,164,540.60. This represents a 3.73 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 24th. The stock was 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 owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,258,000. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 621,886 shares of company stock valued at $213,451,751. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 35,611.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 11,054,391 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,892,160,000 after buying an additional 11,023,436 shares in the last quarter. Clean Energy Transition LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 347.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clean Energy Transition LLP now owns 4,818,600 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $953,505,000 after buying an additional 6,764,300 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 194.7% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 5,486,739 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,215,765,000 after buying an additional 3,624,910 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Tesla by 13.7% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Tesla by 52.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,344,526 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $1,921,548,000 after purchasing an additional 2,511,488 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Tesla Stock Up 1.4 %

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 capitalization of $1.31 trillion, a PE ratio of 112.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.30. The company’s 50-day moving average is $379.81 and its 200 day moving average is $283.29.

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

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.