Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Up 1.6% - Still a Buy?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report)'s stock price shot up 1.6% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $345.50 and last traded at $339.53. 45,127,707 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 53% from the average session volume of 96,403,564 shares. The stock had previously closed at $334.07.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on TSLA. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Tesla from $135.00 to $130.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Guggenheim restated a "sell" rating and set a $170.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on Tesla from $404.00 to $303.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. HSBC dropped their price objective on Tesla from $165.00 to $130.00 and set a "reduce" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on Tesla from $225.00 to $190.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $287.46.

Tesla Stock Up 3.1%

The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $260.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $328.28. The stock has a market cap of $1.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 168.81, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.43.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.26). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. The company had revenue of $19.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.45 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $1,200,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 26,950 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,085,000. This represents a 12.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total value of $13,189,513.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 477,011 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 412,623 shares of company stock valued at $115,600,501. Company insiders own 20.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter worth $14,420,248,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 322.1% during 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 bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the first quarter valued at $3,247,619,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 40.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 34,661,400 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $13,997,660,000 after purchasing an additional 9,920,325 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted 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 acquiring an additional 9,776,607 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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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