Wedbush Reiterates Outperform Rating for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Wedbush reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) in a research note published on Friday, Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has a $300.00 target price on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on TSLA. China Renaissance assumed coverage on Tesla in a research note on Monday, February 26th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Robert W. Baird reissued an outperform rating and set a $280.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price target on Tesla from $150.00 to $120.00 and set an underperform rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Oppenheimer reissued a market perform rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Edward Jones lowered Tesla from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $194.70.

Tesla Stock Performance

TSLA stock opened at $142.05 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $452.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.96, a PEG ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 2.39. Tesla has a 1 year low of $138.80 and a 1 year high of $299.29. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $177.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $210.05.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $25.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.64 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 15.50% and a return on equity of 16.62%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.07 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Tesla will post 1.97 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 93,706 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.73, for a total value of $18,247,369.38. Following the transaction, the director now owns 15,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,920,950. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 93,706 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.73, for a total value of $18,247,369.38. Following the transaction, the director now owns 15,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,920,950. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 687 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.11, for a total value of $121,674.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 63,171 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,188,215.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 209,098 shares of company stock valued at $38,802,534. 25.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Tesla by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 229,806,372 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $57,102,287,000 after acquiring an additional 3,866,361 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Tesla during the 4th quarter worth about $7,844,757,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Tesla by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 30,160,747 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $7,546,823,000 after acquiring an additional 2,177,397 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in Tesla by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,040,734 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $7,266,572,000 after acquiring an additional 269,182 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 27,542,824 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,891,765,000 after buying an additional 909,170 shares during 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.