L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP Boosts Position in Tesla, Inc. $TSLA

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP grew its holdings in shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,613 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings in Tesla were worth $830,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Tesla by 86.3% in the first quarter. Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC now owns 95 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. First PREMIER Bank grew its stake in Tesla by 79.2% in the first quarter. First PREMIER Bank now owns 95 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the period. Newton One Investments LLC grew its stake in Tesla by 250.0% in the first quarter. Newton One Investments LLC now owns 105 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI purchased a new stake in Tesla in the first quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Chelsea Counsel Co. grew its stake in Tesla by 59.7% in the first quarter. Chelsea Counsel Co. now owns 107 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Tesla news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 120,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.29, for a total value of $42,034,800.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 697,031 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $244,162,988.99. This represents a 14.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.75, for a total value of $7,275,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 47,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,314,500. This represents a 29.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 202,606 shares of company stock valued at $75,588,902 over the last ninety days. 19.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Tesla Trading Down 5.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:TSLA opened at $413.49 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.37 trillion, a P/E ratio of 239.01, a PEG ratio of 15.01 and a beta of 2.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 1.55. Tesla, Inc. has a 1 year low of $212.11 and a 1 year high of $488.54. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $375.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $327.89.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TSLA has been the topic of several recent research reports. CICC Research upped their price target on Tesla from $360.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Baird R W raised Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Guggenheim reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $175.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, HSBC increased their target price on Tesla from $120.00 to $127.00 in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and eight have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $354.67.

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.