Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Gap Down – Time to Sell?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $479.86, but opened at $466.50. Tesla shares last traded at $469.91, with a volume of 20,866,948 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Tesla from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Tesla from $295.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a report on Monday, November 18th. Mizuho raised shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $230.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Glj Research reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $24.86 target price on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $272.06.

Tesla Trading Down 0.9 %

The firm has a market cap of $1.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 119.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.36. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $318.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $254.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.37.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.14. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The firm had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.47 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.53 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $1,000,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,258,000. This trade represents a 3.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total value of $34,602,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,868,508. This trade represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 522,886 shares of company stock worth $171,393,831. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. Connable Office Inc. increased its holdings in Tesla by 0.3% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Holistic Financial Partners raised its position in shares of Tesla by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Holistic Financial Partners now owns 4,055 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $1,061,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Sherrill & Hutchins Financial Advisory Inc boosted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Altman Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Tesla by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Altman Advisors Inc. now owns 10,754 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,814,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

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.