Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.08 EPS

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.08), Zacks reports. Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.54%.

Tesla Stock Up 1.1 %

Tesla stock traded up $4.32 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $404.60. The stock had a trading volume of 83,239,854 shares, compared to its average volume of 66,449,784. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 198.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.08 and a beta of 2.30. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $404.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $299.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84. Tesla has a 1-year low of $138.80 and a 1-year high of $488.54.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on TSLA. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Tesla from $226.00 to $259.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Tesla from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Mizuho restated an "outperform" rating and set a $515.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Roth Mkm upgraded Tesla from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $380.00 in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $318.31.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.44, for a total value of $35,339,911.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 85,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $26,727,400. This trade represents a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.63, for a total value of $41,163,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,222,802. This trade represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 553,386 shares of company stock valued at $196,305,796 in the last quarter. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.