Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Up 5.4% After Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Tesla's stock price surged by 5.4% after an upgrade from The Goldman Sachs Group, which raised its price target from $395.00 to $425.00.
• Institutional investors are actively increasing their positions in Tesla, with Vanguard Group and Goldman Sachs both significantly boosting their shareholdings in recent quarters.
• Despite the positive ratings from various analysts, Tesla's recent quarterly earnings report missed expectations, showing a year-over-year revenue decline of 11.8%.

Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) traded up 5.4% on Monday after The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on the stock from $395.00 to $425.00. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $453.55 and last traded at $453.25. 83,701,724 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 19% from the average session volume of 103,096,383 shares. The stock had previously closed at $429.83.

TSLA has been the topic of several other reports. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Tesla from $400.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Baird R W upgraded shares of Tesla from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Guggenheim reiterated a "sell" rating and set a $175.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Robert W. Baird raised 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 report on Friday, September 19th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and eight have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $344.40.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other Tesla news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 120,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.29, for a total value of $42,034,800.00. Following the sale, 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.75, for a total value of $7,275,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 47,600 shares of the company's stock, valued at $17,314,500. The trade was a 29.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 204,606 shares of company stock valued at $76,188,902. 19.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Tesla by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 251,390,681 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $79,856,764,000 after acquiring an additional 4,502,976 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $20,480,477,000 after acquiring an additional 1,269,304 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Tesla in the second quarter valued at approximately $11,839,824,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Tesla by 322.1% during the 1st 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 during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in Tesla by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 20,225,098 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $6,424,705,000 after purchasing an additional 1,134,678 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Tesla Stock Up 5.4%

The stock's 50-day moving average price is $364.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $322.58. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 261.99, a P/E/G ratio of 14.93 and a beta of 2.08.

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 firm had revenue of $22.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.18 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 7.98% and a net margin of 6.54%.Tesla's quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.52 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share 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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