Aviva PLC Has $701.90 Million Position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Aviva PLC raised its stake in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,738,060 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 34,553 shares during the quarter. Tesla comprises 1.8% of Aviva PLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position. Aviva PLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $701,898,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Horrell Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Tesla by 75.6% during the fourth quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 79 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. GS Investments Inc. grew its position in shares of Tesla by 193.3% during the 4th quarter. GS Investments Inc. now owns 88 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. CoreFirst Bank & Trust bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Tesla by 300.0% in the fourth quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 100 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC bought a new stake in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TSLA has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Tesla from $259.00 to $225.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $550.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Tesla presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $312.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total transaction of $13,189,513.04. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 477,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $114,859,478.69. This represents a 10.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,063,565.40. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 477,228 shares of company stock worth $166,849,043. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA opened at $239.43 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a market capitalization of $770.13 billion, a PE ratio of 117.37, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.58. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $305.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $322.90. Tesla, Inc. has a twelve month low of $138.80 and a twelve month high of $488.54.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced 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 net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

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.