Tesla’s (TSLA) “Sell” Rating Reiterated at DZ Bank

DZ Bank reaffirmed their sell rating on shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) in a research note published on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Industrial Alliance Securities set a $300.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Tesla from $483.00 to $508.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. BNP Paribas Exane initiated coverage on Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $307.00 price objective for the company. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, January 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $425.00 target price on shares of Tesla and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Sunday, December 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and nine have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $408.54.

Tesla Price Performance

TSLA opened at $435.80 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $444.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $394.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 2.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 290.53, a P/E/G ratio of 6.93 and a beta of 1.83. Tesla has a 52-week low of $214.25 and a 52-week high of $498.83.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $445.40, for a total value of $26,724,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 577,031 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $257,009,607.40. This represents a 9.42% 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 2,637 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on Monday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $443.93, for a total transaction of $1,170,643.41. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 13,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,107,145.01. This trade represents a 16.09% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 119,457 shares of company stock worth $53,501,145 over the last three months. 19.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TSLA. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Tesla by 0.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 252,386,304 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $112,241,237,000 after acquiring an additional 995,623 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Tesla by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 113,762,849 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $50,592,614,000 after purchasing an additional 344,162 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Tesla by 2.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 64,767,993 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $20,480,477,000 after purchasing an additional 1,269,304 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Tesla by 5.8% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 44,035,949 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $19,583,547,000 after purchasing an additional 2,403,019 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Tesla in the second quarter worth about $11,839,824,000. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Tesla

Here are the key news stories impacting Tesla this week:

• Positive Sentiment: New Street (and some other bulls) raised their price target and reiterated a long‑term autonomy lead, providing a constructive counterpoint to recent weakness. New Street lifts TSLA to $600
• Positive Sentiment: Wedbush’s Dan Ives and other bullish analysts argue Tesla’s AI/energy optionality and brand still justify holding — a sentiment that supports buyers on weakness. Wedbush upbeat on Tesla
• Positive Sentiment: Large institutional flows (UBS AM materially increased its Q3 stake) signal continued conviction from major asset managers and provide a bid under the stock. Quiver quant: institutional moves
• Neutral Sentiment: Unusually high January options volume reflects positioning ahead of Tesla’s late‑January earnings — raises near‑term volatility but isn’t a directionally predictive signal. Options volume spike analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: Elon Musk reiterated that achieving “true” unsupervised full self‑driving will require very large real‑world datasets (he cited ~10 billion miles), underlining a long‑dated timeline for robotaxi profits. Musk on FSD mileage needs
• Neutral Sentiment: Shareholder governance/compensation votes at Tesla’s meeting signaled investors are asserting oversight — important for long‑term governance risk but not an immediate earnings driver. Proxy vote coverage
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive threat from Nvidia’s Alpamayo and broader AI push has investors rethinking Tesla’s autonomy moat; several articles tie recent share weakness to Nvidia’s CES moves. Nvidia competition coverage
• Negative Sentiment: Tesla’s vehicle deliveries declined in 2025 and Q4 missed expectations in several regions — concrete demand and market‑share headwinds that pressure near‑term revenue and margin outlooks. Delivery miss coverage
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple sell/reduce ratings and price‑target cuts (UBS reiterated a Sell, Truist trimmed its PT) amplify downside risk and headline volatility. UBS reiterates Sell
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling by director James Murdoch (SEC filing) and high‑profile bearish takes (e.g., Gordon Johnson’s extreme low target) weigh on sentiment and can deepen pullbacks. SEC filing: Murdoch sale Gordon Johnson $25 target

Tesla Company Profile

Tesla, Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) is an American company that designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles, energy generation and energy storage products. Founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, Tesla grew into a vertically integrated mobility and clean‑energy company with Elon Musk serving as its chief executive officer. The company’s stated mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, reflected in its combined focus on electric drivetrains, battery technology, renewable energy products and software.

Tesla’s automotive business includes a lineup of battery‑electric vehicles and related services.