Piper Sandler Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Free Report) had its price objective reduced by Piper Sandler from $500.00 to $450.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. Piper Sandler currently has an overweight rating on the electric vehicle producer's stock.

TSLA has been the subject of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "cautious" rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Benchmark started coverage on Tesla in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $475.00 price objective for the company. TD Cowen upgraded Tesla from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $180.00 to $388.00 in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Tesla from $440.00 to $370.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Tesla from $492.00 to $474.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Tesla has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $318.93.

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Tesla Trading Up 5.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:TSLA traded up $12.45 on Thursday, hitting $248.71. 132,093,084 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 91,269,538. The stock has a market capitalization of $799.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 121.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.02 and a quick ratio of 1.61. Tesla has a 12 month low of $138.80 and a 12 month high of $488.54. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $335.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $321.15.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last posted its 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 net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. Analysts anticipate that Tesla will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

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

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. World Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Tesla by 1,248.9% during the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 199,229 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $52,124,000 after purchasing an additional 184,459 shares in the last quarter. Destination Wealth Management increased its stake in Tesla by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter. Destination Wealth Management now owns 12,597 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $3,296,000 after buying an additional 1,359 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC increased its stake in Tesla by 126.7% in the 4th quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 1,594 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $644,000 after buying an additional 891 shares during the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd increased its stake in Tesla by 59.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 117,457 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $30,593,000 after buying an additional 43,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC increased its stake in Tesla by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 309,382 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $80,944,000 after buying an additional 9,919 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.