Piper Sandler Boosts Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Price Target to $500.00

Key Points

• Analysts at Piper Sandler have increased Tesla's target price from $400 to $500, suggesting a potential upside of 17.35% based on the company's previous close.
• Despite the positive outlook from some analysts, Tesla's average price target stands at $320.73 with various ratings from strong buy to sell among research analysts.
• Tesla's recent quarterly earnings report showed a decline in revenue to $22.50 billion, missing consensus estimates, with earnings per share of $0.40, falling short of the expected $0.43.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Free Report) had its target price upped by Piper Sandler from $400.00 to $500.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the electric vehicle producer's stock.

Several other analysts also recently commented on the company. William Blair restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Tesla from $390.00 to $375.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Tesla from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $320.00 to $548.00 in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Finally, Argus reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and nine have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $324.53.

Tesla Price Performance

NASDAQ TSLA traded up $8.14 on Monday, hitting $434.21. 96,526,944 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 86,280,128. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $343.03 and a 200-day moving average of $309.87. 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 has a 52 week low of $212.11 and a 52 week high of $488.54. The stock has a market cap of $1.44 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 250.99, a P/E/G ratio of 14.86 and a beta of 2.06.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $22.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.18 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 6.54% and a return on equity of 7.98%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.52 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Tesla will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $292.89, for a total transaction of $1,171,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 5,924 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,735,080.36. This trade represents a 40.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 sale, the director owned 697,031 shares in the company, valued at approximately $244,162,988.99. This trade represents a 14.69% 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. Corporate insiders own 19.90% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TSLA. Caldwell Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 2nd quarter valued at about $643,000. Base Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Tesla by 7.2% in the 2nd quarter. Base Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $413,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. WT Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Tesla by 178.7% in the 2nd quarter. WT Wealth Management now owns 9,313 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $2,958,000 after purchasing an additional 5,972 shares in the last quarter. NWF Advisory Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Tesla by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. NWF Advisory Services Inc. now owns 12,232 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $3,886,000 after purchasing an additional 420 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 2nd quarter valued at about $258,000. 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.