Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Up 17.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shot up 17.1% on Thursday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $255.00 to $265.00. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $251.10 and last traded at $250.15. 83,361,524 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 11% from the average session volume of 93,753,125 shares. The stock had previously closed at $213.65.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on TSLA. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group downgraded Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $147.00 to $197.00 in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Robert W. Baird reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $280.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Mizuho raised their price target on Tesla from $180.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on Tesla from $254.00 to $278.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have issued a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $216.87.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

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

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its position in shares of Tesla by 60.2% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 549,008 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $108,638,000 after purchasing an additional 206,248 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of Tesla by 138.1% during the 2nd quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 5,969 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,181,000 after purchasing an additional 3,462 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Tesla by 12.9% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 236,802 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $46,858,000 after purchasing an additional 27,130 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,941,000. Finally, Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC bought a new position in Tesla in the 1st quarter worth approximately $79,000. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Tesla Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $799.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 70.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.24 and a beta of 2.29. The business has a fifty day moving average of $228.54 and a 200-day moving average of $206.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.91.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by ($0.10). Tesla had a return on equity of 10.41% and a net margin of 13.00%. The business had revenue of $25.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $24.38 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.78 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal 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.