Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Cuts Stock Holdings in Tesla, Inc. $TSLA

Key Points

• The Louisiana State Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in Tesla, Inc. by 0.9%, ending with 256,100 shares valued at approximately $81.35 million.
• Institutional investors currently own 66.20% of Tesla stock, with Goldman Sachs increasing its stake by 322.1% and Amundi raising its stake by 29.4% during the first quarter.
• Analysts have upgraded Tesla's stock ratings, with Robert W. Baird raising the price target from $320 to $548, while the average price target is currently set at $345.70.

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA - Free Report) by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 256,100 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock after selling 2,300 shares during the period. Tesla accounts for approximately 1.5% of Louisiana State Employees Retirement System's portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System's holdings in Tesla were worth $81,353,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Tesla by 322.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 20,291,139 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Tesla in the first quarter worth about $3,247,619,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its stake in shares of Tesla by 581,880.5% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 6,436,704 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $2,044,683,000 after purchasing an additional 6,435,598 shares during the period. Amundi increased its stake in shares of Tesla by 29.4% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 16,771,882 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $4,482,789,000 after purchasing an additional 3,814,610 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Tesla by 1.5% during the first 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 period. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on TSLA. Robert W. Baird upgraded Tesla from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $320.00 to $548.00 in a research note on Friday, September 19th. CICC Research boosted their price target on Tesla from $360.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Dbs Bank boosted their price target on Tesla from $300.00 to $450.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Daiwa Capital Markets restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Sunday, July 27th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $483.00 price target on Tesla and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and eight have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $345.70.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 120,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.29, for a total transaction of $42,034,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 697,031 shares in the company, valued at approximately $244,162,988.99. The trade was a 14.69% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $352.38, for a total transaction of $918,302.28. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 9,856 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,473,057.28. The trade was a 20.91% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 202,606 shares of company stock valued at $75,588,902. 19.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Tesla Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of TSLA opened at $438.69 on Thursday. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $371.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $325.56. Tesla, Inc. has a one year low of $212.11 and a one year high of $488.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.55. The company has a market capitalization of $1.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 253.58, a PEG ratio of 15.92 and a beta of 2.08.

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

Tesla 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.

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