Leelyn Smith LLC Buys 487 Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Leelyn Smith LLC boosted its position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 4.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 11,561 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after buying an additional 487 shares during the period. Tesla makes up approximately 0.8% of Leelyn Smith LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Leelyn Smith LLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $4,669,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in Tesla by 2.8% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,098,717 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $287,457,000 after buying an additional 29,669 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Tesla by 5.6% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,650,393 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $955,052,000 after acquiring an additional 194,796 shares in the last quarter. United Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 3rd quarter worth about $287,000. Chesapeake Capital Corp IL bought a new position in Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at about $221,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in Tesla during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,363,000. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Trading Down 4.8 %

Shares of Tesla stock opened at $238.01 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $347.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $320.53. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Tesla, Inc. has a 12-month low of $138.80 and a 12-month high of $488.54. The company has a market cap of $765.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 116.67, a PEG ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50.

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

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total value of $2,894,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,063,565.40. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.63, for a total value of $41,163,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,222,802. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 477,228 shares of company stock valued at $166,849,043 over the last 90 days. 20.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TSLA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Tesla from $515.00 to $430.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of Tesla from $175.00 to $170.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Tesla from $440.00 to $370.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Tesla from $259.00 to $225.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 10th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $323.00.

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.