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

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their hold rating on shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Free Report) in a research note published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on TSLA. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Tesla from $420.00 to $345.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 28th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Tesla from $225.00 to $190.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. BNP Paribas set a $137.00 price target on Tesla and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. StockNews.com cut Tesla from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Tesla from $373.00 to $280.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $287.46.

Tesla Stock Up 9.8 %

NASDAQ TSLA traded up $25.44 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $284.95. The stock had a trading volume of 166,882,151 shares, compared to its average volume of 95,960,657. Tesla has a 12 month low of $167.41 and a 12 month high of $488.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.02. The company's 50-day moving average price is $263.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $323.02. The company has a market capitalization of $916.55 billion, a PE ratio of 139.68, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.58.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.26). The business had revenue of $19.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.93 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 10.31% and a net margin of 7.26%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Tesla will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $1,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 26,950 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,737,500. This represents a 12.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total transaction of $13,189,513.04. Following the sale, the director now owns 477,011 shares in the company, valued at $114,859,478.69. The trade was a 10.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 374,228 shares of company stock valued at $123,791,123 over the last 90 days. 20.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Tesla by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,650,393 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $955,052,000 after purchasing an additional 194,796 shares in the last quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC grew its stake in shares of Tesla by 6.0% during the third quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 3,401 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $890,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Resource Group increased its holdings in shares of Tesla by 1.2% during the third quarter. Advisory Resource Group now owns 4,260 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $1,115,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Tesla by 46.0% in the 3rd quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 8,712 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $2,279,000 after acquiring an additional 2,743 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SkyView Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 31.4% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,579 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $1,460,000 after acquiring an additional 1,334 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company's stock.

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.