Wells Fargo & Company Lowers Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Price Target to $120.00

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its target price lowered by Wells Fargo & Company from $125.00 to $120.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has an underweight rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on TSLA. Daiwa Capital Markets cut shares of Tesla from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $245.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Tesla from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $298.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Tesla from $225.00 to $165.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Tesla from $190.00 to $175.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $198.81.

Tesla Trading Down 5.6 %

Shares of TSLA stock opened at $161.48 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $181.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $213.70. Tesla has a 1 year low of $152.37 and a 1 year high of $299.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock has a market cap of $514.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 2.40.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.03). Tesla had a return on equity of 16.62% and a net margin of 15.50%. The company had revenue of $25.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.64 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.07 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Tesla will post 1.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.17, for a total transaction of $2,143,785.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 31,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,376,229.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 687 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.11, for a total transaction of $121,674.57. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 63,171 shares in the company, valued at $11,188,215.81. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.17, for a total value of $2,143,785.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 31,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,376,229.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 209,098 shares of company stock worth $38,802,534. Company insiders own 20.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Procyon Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Tesla by 65.2% during the first quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 54,787 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $9,631,000 after acquiring an additional 21,617 shares in the last quarter. ERn Financial LLC grew its position in Tesla by 15.1% in the 1st quarter. ERn Financial LLC now owns 13,415 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,358,000 after purchasing an additional 1,764 shares during the period. Viking Fund Management LLC bought a new stake in Tesla during the 1st quarter valued at $1,055,000. PFS Partners LLC raised its holdings in Tesla by 22.0% during the first quarter. PFS Partners LLC now owns 433 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Epiq Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Tesla by 31.3% in the first quarter. Epiq Partners LLC now owns 1,939 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $341,000 after buying an additional 462 shares in 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.