Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Down 0.7% - Here's What Happened

Shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) fell 0.7% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $410.35 and last traded at $412.36. 20,793,147 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 73% from the average session volume of 76,039,648 shares. The stock had previously closed at $415.11.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on TSLA. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $270.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. New Street Research raised shares of Tesla from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $460.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Tesla from $197.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Tesla from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Tesla from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $230.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $313.84.

Tesla Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.31 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 111.39, a PEG ratio of 8.42 and a beta of 2.30. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $398.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $294.03.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 13.07%. Tesla's revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.01 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.76, for a total value of $1,007,040.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares of the company's stock, valued at $26,442,856.32. This trade represents a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.44, for a total value of $35,339,911.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $26,727,400. This represents a 56.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 617,886 shares of company stock worth $212,451,751. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. World Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Tesla by 1,248.9% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 199,229 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $52,124,000 after buying an additional 184,459 shares in the last quarter. Destination Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Tesla by 12.1% during the 3rd quarter. Destination Wealth Management now owns 12,597 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $3,296,000 after acquiring an additional 1,359 shares in the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd lifted its stake in Tesla by 59.2% during the third quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 117,457 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock worth $30,593,000 after purchasing an additional 43,685 shares during the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its holdings in Tesla by 3.3% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 309,382 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $80,944,000 after purchasing an additional 9,919 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in Tesla by 1.2% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 144,482 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock valued at $37,801,000 after purchasing an additional 1,741 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.