Royal Bank of Canada Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price objective lifted by Royal Bank of Canada from $249.00 to $313.00 in a report issued on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. William Blair started coverage on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. KGI Securities raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $276.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Tesla from $274.00 to $258.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their price target on shares of Tesla from $300.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have issued a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $230.18.

Tesla Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA traded up $9.54 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $320.72. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 114,440,286 shares, compared to its average volume of 96,026,047. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Tesla has a one year low of $138.80 and a one year high of $358.64. The company has a market cap of $1.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.73 and a beta of 2.29. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $252.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $220.46.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 13.07%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.53 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Tesla will post 1.99 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $2,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,258,000. The trade was a 7.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 297 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $221.77, for a total value of $65,865.69. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 67,491 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,967,479.07. The trade was a 0.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 188,797 shares of company stock valued at $57,616,781. 20.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Transcendent Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Bank & Trust Co purchased a new position in Tesla during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Clean Yield Group raised its position in shares of Tesla by 60.0% during the 3rd quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Tesla by 168.8% during the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Finally, Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Tesla Company Profile

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.