Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Earns Sell Rating from Guggenheim

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "sell" rating reissued by analysts at Guggenheim in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $175.00 target price on the electric vehicle producer's stock. Guggenheim's price objective would suggest a potential downside of 44.63% from the company's previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on TSLA. William Blair lowered Tesla from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. UBS Group set a $290.00 target price on Tesla in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Mizuho decreased their price target on Tesla from $390.00 to $375.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Argus reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Finally, Roth Mkm dropped their target price on Tesla from $450.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $302.75.

Tesla Stock Up 3.5%

Tesla stock traded up $10.76 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $316.06. 147,437,834 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 90,285,424. The company's fifty day moving average price is $324.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $314.65. Tesla has a fifty-two week low of $182.00 and a fifty-two week high of $488.54. The company has a market cap of $1.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 182.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.59 and a beta of 2.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.54.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 business 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%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.52 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Tesla will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kimbal Musk sold 91,588 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $357.39, for a total value of $32,732,635.32. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,463,220 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $522,940,195.80. This represents a 5.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,395 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.12, for a total transaction of $30,809,717.40. Following the sale, the director directly owned 85,000 shares in the company, valued at $23,300,200. This represents a 56.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 835,509 shares of company stock worth $279,420,485. Insiders own 20.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter valued at about $14,420,248,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 worth $6,891,201,000 after purchasing an additional 20,291,139 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Tesla in the 1st quarter worth about $3,247,619,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in Tesla by 40.1% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 34,661,400 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $13,997,660,000 after purchasing an additional 9,920,325 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 9,776,607 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company's stock.

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.