Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Up 4.7% – Still a Buy?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shot up 4.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $451.98 and last traded at $450.68. 28,791,843 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 70% from the average session volume of 95,030,086 shares. The stock had previously closed at $430.60.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TSLA has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $287.00 to $411.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Tesla from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Phillip Securities cut Tesla from a “moderate sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. HSBC reissued a “reduce” rating and issued a $124.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $197.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $272.06.

Tesla Stock Up 7.4 %

The firm has a market cap of $1.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 126.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.36. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $327.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $258.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.53 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $374.21, for a total value of $975,191.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,775,792.65. This represents a 2.34 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.44, for a total transaction of $35,339,911.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,727,400. This represents a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 514,886 shares of company stock worth $169,393,831 over the last 90 days. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 59,356,401 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $15,469,792,000 after buying an additional 1,022,589 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Tesla by 3.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 24,741,075 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,473,008,000 after acquiring an additional 828,308 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Tesla by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 24,377,822 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,377,970,000 after acquiring an additional 2,946,763 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Tesla by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,545,824 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $4,328,884,000 after acquiring an additional 301,968 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Tesla by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 12,201,212 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $3,192,203,000 after purchasing an additional 1,294,093 shares during the last quarter. 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.