Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Earns “Outperform” Rating from Wedbush

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Wedbush in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $550.00 target price on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Wedbush’s target price points to a potential upside of 94.34% from the stock’s previous close.

TSLA has been the subject of several other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “cautious” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Tesla from $430.00 to $410.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Roth Capital upgraded Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Oppenheimer restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Tesla has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $319.12.

Tesla Stock Up 4.0 %

Shares of Tesla stock traded up $10.95 on Thursday, hitting $283.01. 34,899,385 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 91,825,229. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $327.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $321.69. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Tesla has a 12-month low of $138.80 and a 12-month high of $488.54. The company has a market cap of $910.30 billion, a PE ratio of 138.77, a PEG ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a return on equity of 10.31% and a net margin of 7.26%. Sell-side analysts predict that Tesla will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other Tesla news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total value of $13,189,513.04. Following the sale, the director now owns 477,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $114,859,478.69. This trade represents a 10.30 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing 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 dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $384.04, for a total value of $43,162,255.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,643,400. The trade was a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 477,228 shares of company stock valued at $166,849,043 over the last three months. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Tesla by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 243,193,181 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $98,211,134,000 after acquiring an additional 3,571,793 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Tesla by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 61,011,604 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $24,566,217,000 after buying an additional 1,655,203 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Tesla in the 4th quarter worth $14,420,248,000. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Tesla by 40.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 34,661,400 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $13,997,660,000 after acquiring an additional 9,920,325 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 21.6% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 28,579,615 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $11,541,592,000 after acquiring an additional 5,075,418 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.