Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Trading Down 0.2% – Time to Sell?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) traded down 0.2% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $347.65 and last traded at $351.87. 34,753,289 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 64% from the average session volume of 95,534,203 shares. The stock had previously closed at $352.56.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TSLA has been the subject of several analyst reports. William Blair initiated coverage on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $195.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $310.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Glj Research restated a “sell” rating and issued a $24.86 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $231.06.

Tesla Price Performance

The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $264.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $226.79. The company has a market cap of $1.09 trillion, a PE ratio of 96.40, a P/E/G ratio of 11.45 and a beta of 2.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. Tesla’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other Tesla news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $314.44, for a total value of $35,339,911.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 85,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,727,400. This trade represents a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total value of $34,602,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at $1,868,508. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 301,187 shares of company stock worth $92,956,692. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Tesla by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 36,399 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $6,399,000 after acquiring an additional 331 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in Tesla by 23.5% in the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 8,760 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $1,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,669 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 26.0% during the 1st quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,395 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $245,000 after buying an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 69.4% in the 1st quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 55,245 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $9,712,000 after buying an additional 22,624 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Waverly Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Tesla by 55.6% in the 1st quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 14,291 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,512,000 after buying an additional 5,107 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.