Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Down 0.9% – Time to Sell?

Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) fell 0.9% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $367.28 and last traded at $370.83. 27,872,957 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 62% from the average session volume of 72,731,859 shares. The stock had previously closed at $374.32.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on TSLA. Roth Mkm raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Glj Research reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $24.86 price objective on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Bank of America lowered Tesla from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $400.00 to $490.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Tesla from $250.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Tesla from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $322.29.

Tesla Stock Down 3.4 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.02. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $407.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $302.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.16 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 177.20, a P/E/G ratio of 6.79 and a beta of 2.34.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 2.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $374.21, for a total transaction of $975,191.26. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at $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 available at this link. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $384.04, for a total transaction of $43,162,255.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 85,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,643,400. The trade was a 56.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 664,776 shares of company stock valued at $239,746,862 over the last 90 days. 20.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 19.6% during the fourth quarter. Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,947 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,998,000 after acquiring an additional 810 shares during the period. Meriwether Wealth & Planning LLC acquired a new stake in Tesla during the 4th quarter worth approximately $351,000. Tiemann Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Tesla by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Tiemann Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,877 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $1,566,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the period. Gallagher Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Tesla during the 4th quarter worth $457,000. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 500,237 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $202,015,000 after buying an additional 10,730 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.