Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Up 7.5% Following Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shot up 7.5% during mid-day trading on Monday after Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $249.00 to $313.00. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $347.34 and last traded at $344.63. 43,089,258 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 55% from the average session volume of 95,790,320 shares. The stock had previously closed at $320.72.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on TSLA. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Tesla from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $286.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $265.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, KGI Securities upgraded shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $276.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have issued a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.18.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $2,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,258,000. This trade represents a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 297 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.77, for a total value of $65,865.69. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,491 shares in the company, valued at $14,967,479.07. The trade was a 0.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 188,797 shares of company stock valued at $57,616,781. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Bank & Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Tesla during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. acquired a new position in Tesla during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Tesla by 168.8% in the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC bought a new position in Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Clean Yield Group lifted its stake in shares of Tesla by 60.0% during the third quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Tesla Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average of $252.30 and a 200-day moving average of $221.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The firm has a market cap of $1.11 trillion, a P/E ratio of 94.42, a PEG ratio of 10.42 and a beta of 2.29.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. Research analysts predict that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.