Wedbush Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price objective lifted by Wedbush from $515.00 to $550.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently commented on TSLA. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Tesla from $197.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Roth Mkm raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $85.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $309.48.

Tesla Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of Tesla stock opened at $415.11 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.33 trillion, a PE ratio of 113.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.60 and a beta of 2.30. Tesla has a 52 week low of $138.80 and a 52 week high of $488.54. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $393.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $291.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted 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. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The business had revenue of $25.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. Tesla’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Tesla will post 2.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.63, for a total transaction of $41,163,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,222,802. The trade was a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total value of $2,894,920.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at $45,063,565.40. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 617,886 shares of company stock valued at $212,451,751 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Transcendent Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in Tesla during the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Clean Yield Group boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Tesla by 168.8% during the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Tesla in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, M&R Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Tesla by 263.2% in the third quarter. M&R Capital Management Inc. now owns 138 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

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.