Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Down 2.5% on Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) traded down 2.5% during trading on Friday after Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on the stock from $474.00 to $455.00. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. Tesla traded as low as $260.79 and last traded at $266.27. 49,743,609 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 46% from the average session volume of 92,204,285 shares. The stock had previously closed at $273.13.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the company. UBS Group dropped their price target on Tesla from $259.00 to $225.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Tesla from $440.00 to $320.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. New Street Research upgraded Tesla from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $460.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and set a $550.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Roth Mkm upgraded Tesla from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $380.00 in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $317.75.

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Insider Activity at Tesla

In other news, 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 completion of the transaction, the director now 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,672 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.73, for a total value of $718,046.56. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 26,950 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,242,273.50. This trade represents a 9.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 quarter. 20.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Tesla by 5.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,650,393 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $955,052,000 after buying an additional 194,796 shares in the last quarter. United Bank acquired a new position in Tesla during the third quarter worth $287,000. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in Tesla during the third quarter valued at $687,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Tesla by 9.6% in the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 8,208 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $2,147,000 after purchasing an additional 721 shares during the period. Finally, Kitching Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla during the third quarter worth about $201,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company's stock.

Tesla Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market cap of $817.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 125.14, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. The firm's 50-day moving average is $321.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $323.01.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share 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.