Tesla's (TSLA) "Outperform" Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "outperform" rating reaffirmed by analysts at Wedbush in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $300.00 price target on the electric vehicle producer's stock. Wedbush's target price points to a potential upside of 104.01% from the company's current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on TSLA. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Tesla from $225.00 to $180.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. KGI Securities reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $213.00 price objective (down from $309.00) on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Daiwa Capital Markets cut shares of Tesla from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $245.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price objective on shares of Tesla from $267.00 to $234.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Tesla from $196.00 to $180.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $194.70.

Tesla Price Performance

NASDAQ:TSLA traded down $2.88 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $147.05. The company's stock had a trading volume of 86,914,652 shares, compared to its average volume of 101,650,617. Tesla has a fifty-two week low of $146.22 and a fifty-two week high of $299.29. 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 has a market capitalization of $468.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.12, a P/E/G ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 2.39. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $178.51 and a 200-day moving average of $211.48.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.03). Tesla had a return on equity of 16.62% and a net margin of 15.50%. The business had revenue of $25.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.64 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $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 will post 1.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 31,230 shares in the company, valued at $5,502,726. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 93,706 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.73, for a total transaction of $18,247,369.38. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 15,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,920,950. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.20, for a total transaction of $1,850,100.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 31,230 shares in the company, valued at $5,502,726. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 209,098 shares of company stock worth $38,802,534. Company insiders own 25.10% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at $7,844,757,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Tesla by 180,125.4% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 26,851,778 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $3,307,602,000 after purchasing an additional 26,836,879 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Tesla by 203.9% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 20,208,699 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $5,360,358,000 after purchasing an additional 13,558,882 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Tesla by 25,990.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 6,202,806 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $1,541,273,000 after purchasing an additional 6,179,032 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its position in Tesla by 26.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 25,427,168 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $3,132,119,000 after purchasing an additional 5,292,464 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.