Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Falls 3.3% – Here’s Why

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares were down 3.3% on Wednesday. The stock traded as low as $375.50 and last traded at $385.19. Approximately 47,407,381 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 5% from the average daily volume of 50,117,289 shares. The stock had previously closed at $398.50.

Key Stories Impacting Tesla

Here are the key news stories impacting Tesla this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Tesla’s robotaxi service has expanded to Fort Worth, adding to its growing autonomy footprint. However, the service is still small and has not yet demonstrated meaningful profitability. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Tesla’s plan to scale Optimus production points to a potential future growth business, but the supplied report mainly highlights a possible revenue boost for chip supplier Texas Instruments—not established revenue for Tesla. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Democrats’ midterm victories have raised investor concerns about tougher scrutiny of Musk-related projects, including data-center expansion and AI, as well as added uncertainty around a possible Tesla–SpaceX merger. Musk had heavily backed Republican candidates. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: A South Korean consumer group alleges Tesla misled customers about its automated-driving technology, creating potential legal and reputational risk around Full Self-Driving. The allegation is not a finding of wrongdoing. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are also focused on rising spending and margin pressure. That concern may weigh more heavily because Tesla’s valuation depends on substantial future profits from autonomy and other emerging businesses, which have yet to scale. Read More.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on TSLA shares. Barclays raised Tesla from an “outperform” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $370.00 to $450.00 in a report on Monday, October 26th. Truist Financial set a $370.00 price objective on Tesla and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $485.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, October 19th. Citizens Jmp initiated coverage on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, July 9th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Tesla from $415.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $414.51.

Tesla Stock Down 3.3%

The firm has a market cap of $1.52 trillion, a PE ratio of 423.29, a P/E/G ratio of 25.01 and a beta of 1.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $371.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $385.39.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 21st. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.02. Tesla had a return on equity of 3.03% and a net margin of 3.11%. The firm had revenue of $28.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $28.06 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.50 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 0.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $360.13, for a total transaction of $938,498.78. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 25,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,353,296.36. The trade was a 9.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Corporate insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TSLA. Security National Bank of Sioux City Iowa IA acquired a new position in Tesla in the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Harborfront Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 2nd quarter worth about $34,000. Montgomery Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. Timbuktu Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Company Profile

Tesla, Inc is an electric vehicle and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003, the company designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles, including the Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y and Cybertruck. Tesla also develops vehicle software, driver-assistance features and related services intended to support the operation and ownership of its vehicles.

Beyond automobiles, Tesla produces energy storage products for residential, commercial and utility-scale applications, including the Powerwall and Megapack.