Navellier & Associates Inc. Acquires New Shares in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Navellier & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 621 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock, valued at approximately $251,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in TSLA. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Tesla by 2.8% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,098,717 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $287,457,000 after buying an additional 29,669 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Tesla by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,166 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $1,087,000 after acquiring an additional 1,059 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Tesla by 28.1% in the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 990 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $259,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares in the last quarter. Ellis Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 3rd quarter worth $222,000. Finally, First Financial Bankshares Inc boosted its position in Tesla by 2.8% during the third quarter. First Financial Bankshares Inc now owns 8,305 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,173,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $374.21, for a total transaction of $975,191.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,775,792.65. This represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.54, for a total value of $35,254,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at $1,903,716. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 523,386 shares of company stock valued at $195,995,200 in the last three months. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Tesla Stock Down 2.2 %

TSLA stock opened at $330.53 on Tuesday. Tesla, Inc. has a one year low of $138.80 and a one year high of $488.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.02. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $397.52 and its 200 day moving average is $314.96. The firm has a market cap of $1.06 trillion, a PE ratio of 162.03, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.34.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share 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%. On average, research analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TSLA has been the subject of several analyst reports. New Street Research raised 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. Benchmark initiated coverage on shares of Tesla in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $475.00 target price for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $365.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Tesla from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $319.57.

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.