Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Price Target Raised to $600.00

Key Points

• Wedbush analysts have raised Tesla's price target from $500.00 to $600.00, indicating a potential upside of 41.71% from the previous close.
• Despite the optimistic outlook from some analysts, Tesla's shares recently saw a decline of 4.4%, opening at $423.39 on the trading day.
• Tesla's quarterly earnings report revealed an EPS of $0.40, missing expectations, while revenue of $22.50 billion was also below analyst forecasts.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) had its price objective raised by analysts at Wedbush from $500.00 to $600.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an "outperform" rating on the electric vehicle producer's stock. Wedbush's price target indicates a potential upside of 41.71% from the company's previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on TSLA. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Tesla from $305.00 to $341.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $475.00 price target (up from $350.00) on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. William Blair reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Tesla from $345.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a "sell" rating and set a $175.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and nine have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Tesla presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $332.33.

Tesla Stock Down 4.4%

Shares of TSLA opened at $423.39 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 244.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 15.45 and a beta of 2.06. Tesla has a 12-month low of $212.11 and a 12-month high of $488.54. The company's 50-day moving average price is $349.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $312.97. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

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

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 120,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.29, for a total transaction of $42,034,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 697,031 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $244,162,988.99. The trade was a 14.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.75, for a total value of $7,275,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 47,600 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $17,314,500. This represents a 29.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 208,606 shares of company stock valued at $77,360,462. 19.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TSLA. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Tesla in the second quarter valued at approximately $11,839,824,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Tesla by 322.1% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 26,590,525 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $6,891,201,000 after purchasing an additional 20,291,139 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Tesla in the first quarter valued at approximately $3,247,619,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Tesla by 27,378.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,812,316 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $2,542,960,000 after purchasing an additional 9,776,607 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 581,880.5% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 6,436,704 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $2,044,683,000 after acquiring an additional 6,435,598 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is 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.

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