Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Up 1.9% – Time to Buy?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s share price rose 1.9% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $250.64 and last traded at $245.21. Approximately 37,907,842 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 57% from the average daily volume of 87,396,945 shares. The stock had previously closed at $240.68.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TSLA has been the subject of a number of research reports. Glj Research reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Roth Mkm raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $85.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Bank of America cut their target price on Tesla from $490.00 to $380.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Tesla from $315.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Tesla from $440.00 to $370.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $325.65.

Tesla Stock Performance

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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $351.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $319.51. The company has a market cap of $804.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 122.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share 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 anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total transaction of $2,894,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,063,565.40. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total value 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. The trade was a 10.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 477,228 shares of company stock valued at $166,849,043 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Tesla by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 243,193,181 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $98,211,134,000 after acquiring an additional 3,571,793 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Tesla by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 61,011,604 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $24,566,217,000 after acquiring an additional 1,655,203 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Tesla in the 4th quarter worth approximately $14,420,248,000. FMR LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 9,920,325 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Tesla by 21.6% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 28,579,615 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $11,541,592,000 after acquiring an additional 5,075,418 shares in 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.