Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Down 3.2% – Here’s What Happened

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) traded down 3.2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $364.46 and last traded at $367.96. 77,341,407 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 26% from the average session volume of 61,245,555 shares. The stock had previously closed at $380.30.

Tesla News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Tesla this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Tesla’s new Semi is getting strong reviews from truckers — an early commercial win that supports recurring revenue from fleets and helps sentiment around industrial EV demand. Tesla Finally Has Its First Semi-Truck and It’s Already a Hit With Truckers
• Positive Sentiment: Elon Musk’s “Terafab” and the AI chip roadmap (AI5/AI6 tape‑out targets and Samsung partnership) keep the company’s high‑margin autonomy/robotics story intact — a strategic catalyst investors are watching. What to Know About Tesla’s Terafab Project and the Company’s AI Future
• Positive Sentiment: Reuters reports Tesla is negotiating to buy ~$2.9B of solar manufacturing equipment from Chinese suppliers to scale U.S. solar panel/cell production — underpins growth in energy storage and solar revenue targets. Tesla plans India push into energy storage as it expands beyond cars, job ad shows
• Positive Sentiment: The U.S. safety regulator closed a prior defect petition covering ~2.26M Tesla vehicles, a datapoint that reduces one specific legal tail‑risk even as other probes continue. US auto safety regulator closes defect petition on over 2 million Tesla vehicles
• Neutral Sentiment: ARKK’s recent pullback highlights Tesla’s outsized influence on innovation ETFs — heavy TSLA weightings amplify volatility in funds but also mean any TSLA rebound helps those ETFs. Is the ARK Innovation ETF Finding a Floor? Tesla and Robinhood Set the Tone (TSLA)
• Negative Sentiment: NHTSA has upgraded its FSD probe to an engineering analysis (covering millions of vehicles and crashes in low‑visibility conditions), raising recall/enforcement risk and hitting sentiment tied to Tesla’s autonomy valuation. US auto safety regulator opens probe into Tesla vehicles with FSD
• Negative Sentiment: UBS and other analysts trimmed near‑term delivery expectations and warned robotaxi adoption may disappoint, pressuring revenue visibility and near‑term multiples. UBS cuts Tesla Q1 delivery estimate and says concerns are growing that robotaxis might not wow investors
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive and regulatory headwinds to robotaxi economics: a Rivian‑Uber 50,000‑vehicle alliance and prominent skeptics increase the execution risk for Tesla’s autonomy/robotaxi thesis. Tesla’s Robotaxi Ambition Faces A New Threat: A 50,000-Vehicle Alliance

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on TSLA shares. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $600.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $520.00 price objective on Tesla in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $508.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley set a $415.00 price objective on Tesla and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and nine have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $406.84.

Tesla Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 2.16. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $416.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $426.27. The firm has a market cap of $1.38 trillion, a P/E ratio of 340.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.61 and a beta of 1.89.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.05. Tesla had a return on equity of 4.86% and a net margin of 4.00%.The firm had revenue of $24.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $24.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.73 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Tesla news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 25,731 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $415.56, for a total transaction of $10,692,774.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 19,669 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,173,649.64. This trade represents a 56.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,264 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $397.03, for a total value of $898,875.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 18,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,188,625.18. The trade was a 11.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 87,995 shares of company stock valued at $38,315,650 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 19.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TSLA. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Tesla by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 258,925,024 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $116,443,762,000 after acquiring an additional 6,538,720 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Tesla by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 114,842,934 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $51,647,164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,080,085 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Tesla by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 65,700,975 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $29,426,070,000 after purchasing an additional 375,946 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Tesla by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 44,035,949 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $19,583,547,000 after purchasing an additional 2,403,019 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $17,128,100,000. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Company Profile

Tesla, Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) is an American company that designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles, energy generation and energy storage products. Founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, Tesla grew into a vertically integrated mobility and clean‑energy company with Elon Musk serving as its chief executive officer. The company’s stated mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, reflected in its combined focus on electric drivetrains, battery technology, renewable energy products and software.

Tesla’s automotive business includes a lineup of battery‑electric vehicles and related services.