Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Raised to Strong-Buy at Baird R W

Key Points

• Tesla's stock rating has been upgraded by Baird R W from a "hold" to a "strong-buy" following a recent research report.
• The stock price rose by $9.22 to $426.07 on Friday, with analysts providing a consensus target price of $317.70.
• Insider selling has occurred recently, with Director James R. Murdoch selling 60,000 shares for over $25 million, representing an 8.61% reduction in his position.

Baird R W upgraded shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Free Report) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Friday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on TSLA. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Tesla from $305.00 to $341.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. William Blair restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, September 5th. Daiwa Capital Markets reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Sunday, July 27th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $440.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and nine have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $317.70.

Tesla Price Performance

TSLA stock traded up $9.22 during trading on Friday, hitting $426.07. 92,721,496 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 86,324,392. Tesla has a 52 week low of $212.11 and a 52 week high of $488.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a current ratio of 2.04. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $340.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $308.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.42 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 246.28, a P/E/G ratio of 14.86 and a beta of 2.06.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $22.50 billion during 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 revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.52 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Tesla will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Tesla news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 20,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.75, for a total transaction of $7,275,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 47,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,314,500. The trade was a 29.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $352.38, for a total transaction of $918,302.28. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 9,856 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,473,057.28. The trade was a 20.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 208,606 shares of company stock worth $77,360,462 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Tesla during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $11,839,824,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Tesla during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,247,619,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Tesla by 27,378.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,812,316 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $2,542,960,000 after purchasing an additional 9,776,607 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Tesla by 581,880.5% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 6,436,704 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $2,044,683,000 after purchasing an additional 6,435,598 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.