Tesla, Inc. $TSLA Shares Sold by Baird Financial Group Inc.

Key Points

• Baird Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in Tesla by 16.1% during the first quarter, selling 72,829 shares and retaining 380,284 shares valued at approximately $98.55 million.
• Insider trading activity included Director James R. Murdoch selling 120,000 shares and CFO Vaibhav Taneja selling 6,000 shares, reflecting significant decreases in their ownership positions.
• Tesla's stock is currently trading down 3.5% with a market capitalization of $1.08 trillion and a year-to-date high and low of $488.54 and $205.97, respectively.

Baird Financial Group Inc. decreased its holdings in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA - Free Report) by 16.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 380,284 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock after selling 72,829 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Tesla were worth $98,554,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Tesla by 322.1% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 26,590,525 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $6,891,201,000 after buying an additional 20,291,139 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Tesla in the 1st quarter valued at $3,247,619,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Tesla by 27,378.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,812,316 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $2,542,960,000 after acquiring an additional 9,776,607 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Tesla by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 246,887,705 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $63,983,418,000 after acquiring an additional 3,694,524 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Tesla by 54.3% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,464,765 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $2,193,728,000 after purchasing an additional 2,978,026 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on TSLA. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. China Renaissance reissued a "hold" rating and issued a $349.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Friday, July 25th. William Blair lowered Tesla from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Guggenheim reissued a "sell" rating and issued a $175.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $475.00 target price (up from $350.00) on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and nine have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Tesla presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $303.31.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 15,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.81, for a total transaction of $4,857,150.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 67,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,889,556. This represents a 18.16% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $600,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 5,924 shares in the company, valued at $1,777,200. The trade was a 25.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 150,564 shares of company stock valued at $51,792,190 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company's stock.

Tesla Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA traded down $12.11 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $333.87. The company's stock had a trading volume of 80,898,652 shares, compared to its average volume of 75,712,112. Tesla, Inc. has a 12-month low of $205.97 and a 12-month high of $488.54. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $323.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $302.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 192.99, a PEG ratio of 11.61 and a beta of 2.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.55.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.43 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $22.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.18 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 6.54% and a return on equity of 7.98%. The company's revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.52 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current 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.