Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Up 9.5% – Here’s What Happened

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) traded up 9.5% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $274.72 and last traded at $272.31. 68,876,539 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 24% from the average session volume of 91,203,451 shares. The stock had previously closed at $248.71.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TSLA has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $404.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Monday, March 17th. Glj Research reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Tesla from $135.00 to $120.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. New Street Research upgraded shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $460.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $550.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Tesla currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $318.93.

Tesla Stock Up 10.1 %

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $335.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $321.15. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a market cap of $880.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 134.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. Sell-side analysts predict that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s 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 owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at $45,063,565.40. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $384.04, for a total value of $43,162,255.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 85,000 shares in the company, valued at $32,643,400. The trade was a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 477,228 shares of company stock valued at $166,849,043. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TSLA. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Tesla by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 243,193,181 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $98,211,134,000 after purchasing an additional 3,571,793 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Tesla by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 61,011,604 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $24,566,217,000 after buying an additional 1,655,203 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $14,420,248,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Tesla by 40.1% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 34,661,400 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $13,997,660,000 after acquiring an additional 9,920,325 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Tesla by 21.6% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 28,579,615 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $11,541,592,000 after acquiring an additional 5,075,418 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.