Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Up 6.8% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Shares jumped 6.8%, trading as high as $421.72 and last at $417.78 after a prior close of $391.09, on volume of ~96.1M shares (slightly below the ~100.5M average).
• Analyst views are mixed with a MarketBeat consensus of "Hold" and an average target of $394.31, though individual targets range widely from $307 to $600 and ratings span Strong Buy to Sell.
• Tesla recently beat expectations with $0.50 EPS (vs. $0.48 est.) and $28.10B revenue (vs. $24.98B est.), showing 11.6% revenue growth year-over-year, while valuation metrics remain high (market cap ~$1.39T, P/E ~278.5).

Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) shot up 6.8% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $421.72 and last traded at $417.78. 96,118,521 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 4% from the average session volume of 100,549,781 shares. The stock had previously closed at $391.09.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on TSLA shares. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $600.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. CICC Research upped their price objective on Tesla from $360.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, September 18th. BNP Paribas Exane initiated coverage on Tesla in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $307.00 target price for the company. DZ Bank reaffirmed a "sell" rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and ten have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $394.31.

Tesla Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $433.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $366.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.39 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 278.52, a PEG ratio of 16.84 and a beta of 2.06.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $28.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $24.98 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 6.61% and a net margin of 5.51%.Tesla's revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.72 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.38, for a total value of $918,302.28. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,473,057.28. This trade represents a 20.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director James R. Murdoch sold 60,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $422.68, for a total value of $25,360,800.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 637,031 shares of the company's stock, valued at $269,260,263.08. The trade was a 8.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 202,606 shares of company stock valued at $75,588,902 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 19.90% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Tesla by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 252,386,304 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $112,241,237,000 after purchasing an additional 995,623 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Tesla by 0.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 113,762,849 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $50,592,614,000 after buying an additional 344,162 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Tesla by 2.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 64,767,993 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $20,480,477,000 after buying an additional 1,269,304 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Tesla by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 44,035,949 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $19,583,547,000 after buying an additional 2,403,019 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Tesla during the 2nd quarter worth about $11,839,824,000. Hedge funds and other 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.

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