Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.08 EPS

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) issued its earnings results on Wednesday. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.08), Zacks reports. Tesla had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 13.07%.

Tesla Price Performance

Shares of TSLA stock traded down $8.99 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $389.10. 58,807,916 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 73,001,117. The firm has a market cap of $1.25 trillion, a PE ratio of 106.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.42 and a beta of 2.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $401.04 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $296.63. Tesla has a 1-year low of $138.80 and a 1-year high of $488.54.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TSLA has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $400.00 to $430.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. HSBC reissued a “reduce” rating and set a $124.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, October 11th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $411.00 to $492.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays lifted their price target on Tesla from $270.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Roth Mkm raised 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 report on Monday, December 2nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $313.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, 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 transaction of $41,163,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,222,802. This trade represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total transaction of $2,894,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 617,886 shares of company stock worth $212,451,751. 20.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.