Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Price Target Raised to $500.00

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price target upped by Piper Sandler from $400.00 to $500.00 in a research note published on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on TSLA. Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of Tesla from $303.00 to $333.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Tesla from $390.00 to $375.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Tesla from $300.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Finally, Glj Research reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and nine have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $326.74.

Tesla Price Performance

TSLA opened at $442.79 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Tesla has a 52-week low of $212.11 and a 52-week high of $488.54. The company has a 50 day moving average of $347.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $311.58. The company has a market cap of $1.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 255.95, a P/E/G ratio of 14.86 and a beta of 2.06.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.03). Tesla had a return on equity of 7.98% and a net margin of 6.54%.The business had revenue of $22.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. Tesla’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Tesla will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $422.68, for a total transaction of $25,360,800.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 637,031 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $269,260,263.08. This represents a 8.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.38, for a total transaction of $918,302.28. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,856 shares in the company, valued at $3,473,057.28. This trade represents a 20.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 208,606 shares of company stock valued at $77,360,462. Company insiders own 19.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Means Investment CO. Inc. grew its position in shares of Tesla by 37.7% during the first quarter. Means Investment CO. Inc. now owns 23,089 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $5,984,000 after acquiring an additional 6,323 shares during the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. grew its position in shares of Tesla by 3.1% during the first quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 22,467 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $5,823,000 after acquiring an additional 670 shares during the last quarter. Siren L.L.C. bought a new position in Tesla in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,332,000. Zuckerman Investment Group LLC grew its position in Tesla by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. Zuckerman Investment Group LLC now owns 12,748 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $3,304,000 after buying an additional 826 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new position in Tesla in the 1st quarter valued at about $594,000. 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.