Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Rating Lowered to Neutral at Bank of America

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was downgraded by Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report released on Tuesday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. They presently have a $490.00 target price on the electric vehicle producer’s stock, up from their prior target price of $400.00. Bank of America‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 19.21% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Tesla from $310.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Tesla from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Phillip Securities cut Tesla from a “moderate sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.69.

Tesla Stock Performance

TSLA opened at $411.05 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.32 trillion, a PE ratio of 112.62, a P/E/G ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.30. Tesla has a 1 year low of $138.80 and a 1 year high of $488.54. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $365.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $276.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

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

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $374.21, for a total value of $975,191.26. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at $40,775,792.65. The trade was a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total transaction of $34,602,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,868,508. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 514,886 shares of company stock valued at $169,393,831. 20.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Connable Office Inc. increased its position in Tesla by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Connable Office Inc. now owns 12,872 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $3,368,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Community Bank N.A. increased its holdings in Tesla by 4.4% in the third quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 908 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $238,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Holistic Financial Partners lifted its holdings in Tesla by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Holistic Financial Partners now owns 4,055 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,061,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. Sherrill & Hutchins Financial Advisory Inc grew its position in shares of Tesla by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sherrill & Hutchins Financial Advisory Inc now owns 3,058 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $800,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Altman Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Tesla by 0.4% in the third quarter. Altman Advisors Inc. now owns 10,754 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,814,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

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.