Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Price Target Raised to $480.00

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price target raised by Robert W. Baird from $280.00 to $480.00 in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

TSLA has been the topic of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Tesla from $310.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Tesla from $197.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Roth Mkm upgraded shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $272.06.

Tesla Trading Down 8.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:TSLA opened at $440.13 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $314.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $252.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.58, a PEG ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.36. Tesla has a 52-week low of $138.80 and a 52-week high of $488.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.14. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Tesla will post 1.99 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, Director Kimbal Musk sold 60,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.23, for a total value of $15,138,915.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,563,220 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $391,164,540.60. This trade represents a 3.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $1,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,258,000. This represents a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 522,886 shares of company stock valued at $171,393,831 over the last three months. 20.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new stake in Tesla during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 168.8% during the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Clean Yield Group grew its stake in Tesla by 60.0% in the third quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Tesla during the 3rd quarter worth $35,000. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.