HSBC Has Lowered Expectations for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price objective decreased by equities research analysts at HSBC from $165.00 to $130.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage currently has a “reduce” rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. HSBC’s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 52.22% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Benchmark initiated coverage on Tesla in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $475.00 price objective for the company. Guggenheim dropped their price target on Tesla from $175.00 to $170.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Glj Research reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Tesla from $430.00 to $410.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $319.12.

Tesla Stock Down 5.6 %

Tesla stock opened at $272.06 on Thursday. Tesla has a twelve month low of $138.80 and a twelve month high of $488.54. The stock has a market cap of $875.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 133.36, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $327.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $321.69. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a return on equity of 10.31% and a net margin of 7.26%. As a group, analysts expect that Tesla will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total value of $13,189,513.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 477,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $114,859,478.69. This represents a 10.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.63, for a total value of $41,163,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,222,802. The trade was a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 477,228 shares of company stock worth $166,849,043 in the last quarter. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TSLA. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $14,420,248,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Tesla by 40.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 34,661,400 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $13,997,660,000 after purchasing an additional 9,920,325 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its holdings in Tesla by 36,790.0% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 8,660,672 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $3,497,526,000 after purchasing an additional 8,637,195 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Tesla by 4,963.0% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,834,707 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $2,356,288,000 after buying an additional 5,719,466 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 21.6% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 28,579,615 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $11,541,592,000 after buying an additional 5,075,418 shares during the period. 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.