Stifel Nicolaus Boosts Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Price Target to $287.00

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price target upped by Stifel Nicolaus from $265.00 to $287.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $165.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $254.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group cut shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $147.00 to $197.00 in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $153.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, HSBC reissued a “reduce” rating and issued a $124.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Tesla currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $219.00.

Tesla Stock Performance

TSLA opened at $269.19 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $864.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.75, a PEG ratio of 7.59 and a beta of 2.29. The company has a fifty day moving average of $230.53 and a 200 day moving average of $207.92. Tesla has a fifty-two week low of $138.80 and a fifty-two week high of $271.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. Tesla’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Tesla will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $2,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,258,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $2,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,258,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 297 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.77, for a total transaction of $65,865.69. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,967,479.07. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. Bank & Trust Co acquired a new position in Tesla during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. acquired a new position in Tesla during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Tesla by 168.8% during the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Clean Yield Group increased its stake in Tesla by 60.0% during the 3rd quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&R Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Tesla by 263.2% in the third quarter. M&R Capital Management Inc. now owns 138 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.