Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Up 2.2% on Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Tesla's stock price rose 2.2% following an upgrade by Robert W. Baird, raising its price target from $320.00 to $548.00.
• Insider trading activity has shown a significant decrease in holdings with Director James R. Murdoch selling 120,000 shares valued at over $42 million.
• The stock has a consensus rating of "Hold", with 66.20% of shares owned by institutional investors as of now.

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report)'s stock price shot up 2.2% on Friday after Robert W. Baird upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to an outperform rating. Robert W. Baird now has a $548.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $320.00. Tesla traded as high as $429.47 and last traded at $426.07. 87,100,699 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 16% from the average session volume of 103,369,977 shares. The stock had previously closed at $416.85.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on TSLA. China Renaissance restated a "hold" rating and set a $349.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Baird R W lowered shares of Tesla from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on shares of Tesla from $303.00 to $333.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $475.00 target price (up previously from $350.00) on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and nine have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $317.70.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 120,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were 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 owned 697,031 shares in the company, valued at $244,162,988.99. This trade represents a 14.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.75, for a total transaction of $7,275,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 47,600 shares of the company's stock, valued at $17,314,500. This represents a 29.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 208,606 shares of company stock worth $77,360,462 over the last quarter. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Base Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 7.2% in the second quarter. Base Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $413,000 after buying an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. WT Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 178.7% in the second quarter. WT Wealth Management now owns 9,313 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $2,958,000 after buying an additional 5,972 shares in the last quarter. NWF Advisory Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 3.6% in the second quarter. NWF Advisory Services Inc. now owns 12,232 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $3,886,000 after buying an additional 420 shares in the last quarter. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. purchased a new stake in Tesla in the second quarter valued at approximately $258,000. Finally, SevenBridge Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Tesla by 7.3% in the second quarter. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC now owns 1,279 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $436,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Tesla Price Performance

The business's 50 day moving average is $338.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $307.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 246.28, a P/E/G ratio of 14.86 and a beta of 2.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.55.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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 analysts' expectations of $23.18 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 6.54% and a return on equity of 7.98%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

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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