Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Up 1.7% – Time to Buy?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shot up 1.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $454.63 and last traded at $454.53. 70,943,611 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 29% from the average session volume of 99,491,500 shares. The stock had previously closed at $446.74.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on TSLA. DZ Bank reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. China Renaissance boosted their price target on shares of Tesla from $349.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. BNP Paribas increased their price objective on Tesla from $307.00 to $313.00 in a report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Tesla from $483.00 to $508.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and nine have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $398.92.

Tesla Price Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average is $434.02 and its 200 day moving average is $371.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $1.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 303.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 14.53 and a beta of 1.87.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $28.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $24.98 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 6.61% and a net margin of 5.51%.The firm’s revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.38, for a total transaction of $918,302.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 9,856 shares in the company, valued at $3,473,057.28. This trade represents a 20.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 20,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.75, for a total value of $7,275,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 47,600 shares in the company, valued at $17,314,500. This represents a 29.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 82,606 shares of company stock valued at $33,554,102 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 19.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TSLA. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC grew its stake in shares of Tesla by 0.4% in the third quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC now owns 6,558 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $2,916,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Equita Financial Network Inc. increased its position in shares of Tesla by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Equita Financial Network Inc. now owns 855 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $380,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the period. VanderPol Investments L.L.C. raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. VanderPol Investments L.L.C. now owns 1,070 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $464,000 after buying an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 0.3% in the third quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,577 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $3,814,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the period. Finally, Cloud Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Tesla by 1.1% during the third quarter. Cloud Capital Management LLC now owns 2,076 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $923,000 after buying an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.