Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Up 1.6% After Analyst Upgrade

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded up 1.6% during trading on Friday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $265.00 to $287.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Tesla traded as high as $269.44 and last traded at $264.71. 63,385,668 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 33% from the average session volume of 94,209,750 shares. The stock had previously closed at $260.48.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on TSLA. KGI Securities upgraded Tesla from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $276.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Tesla from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com upgraded Tesla from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Tesla from $160.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $310.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Tesla has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $219.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 297 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $221.77, for a total transaction of $65,865.69. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 67,491 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,967,479.07. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 297 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.77, for a total transaction of $65,865.69. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,491 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,967,479.07. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $2,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares of the company's stock, valued at $26,258,000. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Tesla by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 233,602,120 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $41,064,917,000 after purchasing an additional 3,795,748 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 35,611.2% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 11,054,391 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $2,892,160,000 after buying an additional 11,023,436 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of Tesla by 12.9% during the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 9,849,425 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $1,731,430,000 after acquiring an additional 1,125,329 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its holdings in Tesla by 21,816.0% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 5,902,416 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $1,167,970,000 after acquiring an additional 5,875,484 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Tesla by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 5,314,395 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $1,051,613,000 after acquiring an additional 135,966 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Tesla Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $859.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.24 and a beta of 2.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $229.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $206.79.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $25.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 13.00% and a return on equity of 10.41%. Tesla's revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.53 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

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.