Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Receives “Hold” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reissued their hold rating on shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Guggenheim restated a sell rating and set a $122.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Tesla from $320.00 to $310.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Tesla from $125.00 to $120.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Tesla from $185.00 to $165.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on Tesla from $195.00 to $180.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $186.70.

Tesla Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA opened at $168.29 on Wednesday. Tesla has a twelve month low of $138.80 and a twelve month high of $299.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company has a market capitalization of $536.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 2.39. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $175.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $207.61.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.03). Tesla had a net margin of 14.37% and a return on equity of 13.18%. The company had revenue of $25.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.07 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Tesla will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 93,706 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.73, for a total transaction of $18,247,369.38. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 15,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,920,950. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 93,706 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.73, for a total transaction of $18,247,369.38. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 15,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,920,950. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 687 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.11, for a total value of $121,674.57. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 63,171 shares in the company, valued at $11,188,215.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 209,098 shares of company stock valued at $38,802,534 over the last three months. Company insiders own 25.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Tesla during the fourth quarter valued at $7,844,757,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Tesla by 25,990.7% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 6,202,806 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,541,273,000 after purchasing an additional 6,179,032 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Tesla by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 229,806,372 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $57,102,287,000 after purchasing an additional 3,866,361 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System increased its position in Tesla by 34.0% in the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 9,032,207 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $2,260,039,000 after purchasing an additional 2,293,344 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in Tesla by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 30,160,747 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $7,546,823,000 after purchasing an additional 2,177,397 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.