Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Up 4.4% – Should You Buy?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares were up 4.4% on Friday . The company traded as high as $435.00 and last traded at $432.06. Approximately 33,617,777 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 56% from the average daily volume of 75,602,938 shares. The stock had previously closed at $413.82.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on TSLA shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Tesla from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $156.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. HSBC reiterated a “reduce” rating and issued a $124.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of Tesla from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $400.00 to $490.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.33.

Tesla Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 116.85, a PEG ratio of 6.53 and a beta of 2.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $389.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $288.09.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.14. The firm 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%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.53 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.63, for a total value of $41,163,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,222,802. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total value of $2,894,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,063,565.40. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 621,886 shares of company stock valued at $213,451,751. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Acropolis Investment Management LLC increased its position in Tesla by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Acropolis Investment Management LLC now owns 2,814 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $1,136,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Mount Vernon Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Tesla by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Mount Vernon Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,305 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,950,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Albion Financial Group UT increased its position in Tesla by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 7,099 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,867,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Connable Office Inc. increased its position in Tesla by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Connable Office Inc. now owns 12,872 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $3,368,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Finally, Community Bank N.A. increased its position in Tesla by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 908 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $238,000 after purchasing an additional 38 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.