Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Down 2.4%

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares traded down 2.4% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $175.15 and last traded at $175.70. 29,902,732 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 70% from the average session volume of 100,424,219 shares. The stock had previously closed at $180.11.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the company. Daiwa Capital Markets downgraded Tesla from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $245.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Barclays cut their target price on Tesla from $225.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Robert W. Baird reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $280.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Tesla from $180.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $185.90.

Tesla Trading Down 3.5 %

The stock has a market cap of $554.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.82, a PEG ratio of 4.58 and a beta of 2.41. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $171.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $201.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.72.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35. Tesla had a return on equity of 13.18% and a net margin of 14.37%. The company had revenue of $21.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.15 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.89 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.17, for a total transaction of $2,143,785.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 31,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,376,229.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.17, for a total value of $2,143,785.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 31,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,376,229.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 93,705 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.44, for a total value of $16,439,605.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,631,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 209,097 shares of company stock valued at $37,877,471 in the last quarter. 25.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Tesla by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 233,602,120 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $41,064,917,000 after buying an additional 3,795,748 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at about $7,844,757,000. Morgan Stanley raised its position in Tesla by 7.8% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 30,160,747 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $7,546,823,000 after purchasing an additional 2,177,397 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in Tesla by 0.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,040,734 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $7,266,572,000 after purchasing an additional 269,182 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Tesla by 3.4% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 27,542,824 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,891,765,000 after purchasing an additional 909,170 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.