Wedbush Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by Wedbush in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $550.00 target price on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective points to a potential upside of 133.31% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on TSLA. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Tesla from $440.00 to $370.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Tesla from $490.00 to $380.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Benchmark started coverage on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $475.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $319.56.

Tesla Stock Performance

Tesla stock traded down $0.12 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $235.74. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 34,969,465 shares, compared to its average volume of 90,714,252. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $341.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $320.02. The company has a market cap of $758.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 115.56, a PEG ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.02 and a quick ratio of 1.61. Tesla has a 1-year low of $138.80 and a 1-year high of $488.54.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 10.31% and a net margin of 7.26%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Tesla will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other Tesla 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares in the company, 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the director now owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,222,802. This trade represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 477,228 shares of company stock worth $166,849,043 in the last three months. 20.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TSLA. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 4th quarter worth about $14,420,248,000. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Tesla by 40.1% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 34,661,400 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $13,997,660,000 after buying an additional 9,920,325 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its position in shares of Tesla by 36,790.0% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 8,660,672 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $3,497,526,000 after buying an additional 8,637,195 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Tesla by 4,963.0% in the 4th 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 period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Tesla by 21.6% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 28,579,615 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $11,541,592,000 after purchasing an additional 5,075,418 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.