Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Down 0.6% After Analyst Downgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report)'s stock price fell 0.6% on Friday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $320.00 to $310.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Tesla traded as low as $167.12 and last traded at $170.00. 30,803,660 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 70% from the average session volume of 101,459,219 shares. The stock had previously closed at $171.11.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on TSLA. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $220.00 to $190.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Redburn Atlantic initiated coverage on shares of Tesla in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. They issued a "sell" rating and a $170.00 price objective for the company. Wedbush dropped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $295.00 to $225.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "underweight" rating and issued a $125.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Monday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $201.63.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other news, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.20, for a total value of $1,850,100.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 31,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,502,726. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.20, for a total value of $1,850,100.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 31,230 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,502,726. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 687 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.11, for a total transaction of $121,674.57. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 63,171 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,188,215.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 209,098 shares of company stock worth $38,802,534. 25.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Tesla by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 229,806,372 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $57,102,287,000 after buying an additional 3,866,361 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in Tesla by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 99,683,820 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $20,680,162,000 after buying an additional 685,454 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at about $7,844,757,000. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in Tesla by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 30,160,747 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $7,546,823,000 after buying an additional 2,177,397 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC increased its stake in Tesla by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,040,734 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $7,266,572,000 after buying an additional 269,182 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.20% of the company's stock.

Tesla Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company's 50-day moving average price is $183.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $218.23. The company has a market cap of $525.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 2.39.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.03). Tesla had a net margin of 15.50% and a return on equity of 16.62%. The business had revenue of $25.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.07 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.38 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.