Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Up 2.3% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Tesla's stock rose by 2.3% to $355.10, despite a significant decline in trading volume of 77% from its average.
• Financial analysts show mixed sentiments towards Tesla, with one strong buy, seventeen buy, fourteen hold, and nine sell ratings, resulting in a consensus rating of "hold" and a price target of $303.00.
• Recent insider sales included 120,000 shares sold by Director James R. Murdoch and 2,606 shares by CFO Vaibhav Taneja, indicating a 20.91% decrease in the CFO's position.

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) rose 2.3% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $353.73 and last traded at $355.10. Approximately 23,320,313 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 102,477,531 shares. The stock had previously closed at $346.97.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TSLA has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $410.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Guggenheim restated a "sell" rating and issued a $175.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. China Renaissance reaffirmed a "hold" rating and set a $349.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Sunday, July 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and nine have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $303.00.

Tesla Stock Up 7.4%

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's 50 day moving average is $328.89 and its 200-day moving average is $303.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 228.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.87 and a beta of 2.06.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 the consensus estimate of $23.18 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 6.54% and a return on equity of 7.98%. Tesla's revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.52 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 120,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 of the company's stock, valued at $244,162,988.99. The trade was a 14.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.38, for a total transaction of $918,302.28. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,856 shares in the company, valued at $3,473,057.28. This trade represents a 20.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 148,606 shares of company stock valued at $51,999,662 over the last 90 days. 20.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Tesla in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $11,839,824,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Tesla by 322.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 20,291,139 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Tesla in the 1st quarter valued at $3,247,619,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Tesla by 27,378.6% in 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 during the period. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in 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 worth $2,044,683,000 after acquiring an additional 6,435,598 shares during the last quarter. 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.