Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading 4.4% Higher – Here’s Why

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) traded up 4.4% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $435.00 and last traded at $432.06. 33,617,777 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 56% from the average session volume of 75,602,938 shares. The stock had previously closed at $413.82.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on TSLA shares. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $360.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Tesla from $249.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Bank of America cut Tesla from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $400.00 to $490.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Roth Capital raised shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.33.

Tesla Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $385.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $285.69. The firm has a market cap of $1.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.16, a P/E/G ratio of 6.53 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.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The business had revenue of $25.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.53 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $1,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,258,000. This trade represents a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at $2,222,802. The trade was a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 621,886 shares of company stock worth $213,451,751 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Tesla by 168.8% in the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Tesla in the third quarter worth about $29,000. Clean Yield Group raised its position in shares of Tesla by 60.0% during the third quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, M&R Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 263.2% in the 3rd quarter. M&R Capital Management Inc. now owns 138 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

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.