Barings LLC Decreases Stake in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Barings LLC reduced its position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 33.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,289 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after selling 658 shares during the period. Barings LLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $521,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 1.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 59,356,401 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $15,469,792,000 after buying an additional 1,022,589 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 3.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 24,741,075 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $6,473,008,000 after buying an additional 828,308 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 13.7% in the third 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 worth $6,377,970,000 after buying an additional 2,946,763 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 17,325,850 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $6,996,871,000 after buying an additional 780,026 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 12,957,272 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $5,117,345,000 after buying an additional 159,508 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total transaction of $2,894,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,063,565.40. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.63, for a total value of $41,163,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,222,802. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 422,452 shares of company stock valued at $153,659,530. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Tesla Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA opened at $262.67 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $844.88 billion, a PE ratio of 128.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $367.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $318.71. Tesla, Inc. has a 12-month low of $138.80 and a 12-month high of $488.54.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. As a group, analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on TSLA. Guggenheim reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on Tesla from $490.00 to $380.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Tesla from $440.00 to $370.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $327.37.

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.