Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms "Hold" Rating for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their hold rating on shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Free Report) in a report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $410.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, June 6th. Benchmark reissued a "buy" rating and set a $475.00 target price (up from $350.00) on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Baird R W cut shares of Tesla from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, June 9th. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $303.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Raymond James Financial cut shares of Tesla to an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $302.75.

Tesla Stock Up 3.5%

TSLA traded up $10.76 during trading on Thursday, hitting $316.06. The company had a trading volume of 147,437,834 shares, compared to its average volume of 90,285,424. The company has a market cap of $1.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 182.69, a P/E/G ratio of 12.00 and a beta of 2.39. Tesla has a 1-year low of $182.00 and a 1-year high of $488.54. The business has a 50-day moving average of $324.70 and a 200-day moving average of $314.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.54.

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 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 analyst estimates of $23.18 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 7.98% and a net margin of 6.54%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Tesla will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.81, for a total value of $4,857,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 67,600 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,889,556. This represents a 18.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kimbal Musk sold 91,588 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $357.39, for a total transaction of $32,732,635.32. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,463,220 shares of the company's stock, valued at $522,940,195.80. This trade represents a 5.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 835,509 shares of company stock valued at $279,420,485 over the last ninety days. 20.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Tesla by 86.3% during the first quarter. Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC now owns 95 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. First PREMIER Bank raised its position in Tesla by 79.2% during the first quarter. First PREMIER Bank now owns 95 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Newton One Investments LLC raised its position in Tesla by 250.0% during the first quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 105 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI bought a new position in Tesla during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC raised its position in Tesla by 79.5% during the fourth quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 70 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Tesla

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.