Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its target price upped by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $400.00 to $430.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 8.93% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms have also commented on TSLA. StockNews.com raised shares of Tesla from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Tesla from $411.00 to $492.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. HSBC reaffirmed a “reduce” rating and issued a $124.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, October 11th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Tesla from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Tesla from $249.00 to $313.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Nine investment 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $296.60.

Tesla Price Performance

TSLA opened at $394.74 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $376.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $281.84. The firm has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 108.15, a PEG ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.30. Tesla has a twelve month low of $138.80 and a twelve month high of $488.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.53 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Tesla will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In related news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.63, for a total transaction of $41,163,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,222,802. The trade was a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.76, for a total transaction of $1,007,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,442,856.32. This represents a 3.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 621,886 shares of company stock valued at $213,451,751. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Connable Office Inc. grew its position in Tesla by 0.3% in the third quarter. Connable Office Inc. now owns 12,872 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $3,368,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. grew its position in Tesla by 4.4% in the third quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 908 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $238,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Holistic Financial Partners grew its position in Tesla by 1.0% in the third quarter. Holistic Financial Partners now owns 4,055 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,061,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Sherrill & Hutchins Financial Advisory Inc lifted its stake in shares of Tesla by 1.4% in the third quarter. Sherrill & Hutchins Financial Advisory Inc now owns 3,058 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $800,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Altman Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Tesla by 0.4% in the third quarter. Altman Advisors Inc. now owns 10,754 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $2,814,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by 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.