Voya Investment Management LLC Reduces Holdings in Tesla, Inc. $TSLA

Key Points

• Voya Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in Tesla by 12.3% in Q1, now holding approximately 3.46 million shares valued at about $895.68 million.
• Insider selling includes Tesla's CFO Vaibhav Taneja and Director James R. Murdoch who sold 2,606 and 120,000 shares respectively, representing significant decreases in their holdings.
• Recent analyst ratings show a consensus of "Hold" for Tesla, with a target price averaging around $303.00, amidst mixed ratings from various research firms.

Voya Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA - Free Report) by 12.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,457,232 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock after selling 482,662 shares during the quarter. Tesla comprises approximately 1.0% of Voya Investment Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 12th largest position. Voya Investment Management LLC owned 0.11% of Tesla worth $895,682,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in Tesla by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 87,929 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $35,509,000 after purchasing an additional 9,293 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Tesla by 21.2% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,317 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $2,147,000 after buying an additional 931 shares during the last quarter. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the 4th quarter worth approximately $346,000. Highview Capital Management LLC DE bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,367,000. Finally, Bison Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Tesla by 52.2% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 10,368 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $4,187,000 after purchasing an additional 3,558 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $352.38, for a total transaction of $918,302.28. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,473,057.28. The trade was a 20.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.75, for a total transaction of $7,275,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 47,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,314,500. The trade was a 29.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 148,606 shares of company stock worth $51,999,662 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on TSLA. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Argus reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Glj Research reaffirmed a "sell" rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $440.00 target price on Tesla in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on Tesla from $305.00 to $341.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and nine have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $303.00.

Tesla Stock Up 7.4%

Shares of TSLA stock traded up $27.13 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $395.94. 167,593,971 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 71,704,616. The stock has a market cap of $1.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 228.87, a PEG ratio of 12.87 and a beta of 2.06. Tesla, Inc. has a 12-month low of $212.11 and a 12-month high of $488.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $328.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $303.57.

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