Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Issues Earnings Results

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.08), Zacks reports. Tesla had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 13.07%.

Tesla Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA traded down $8.99 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $389.10. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 54,030,051 shares, compared to its average volume of 72,583,477. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $401.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $296.63. The stock has a market cap of $1.25 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 106.60, a P/E/G ratio of 8.42 and a beta of 2.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84. Tesla has a 12 month low of $138.80 and a 12 month high of $488.54.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on TSLA. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “underperform” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays raised their price objective on Tesla from $270.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Tesla from $400.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Tesla from $195.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Tesla from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Tesla currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $313.84.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,868,508. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total value of $2,894,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,063,565.40. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 617,886 shares of company stock valued at $212,451,751. Company insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

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.