Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price Up 2.8% – Should You Buy?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) shot up 2.8% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $293.00 and last traded at $289.85. 46,161,977 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 40% from the average session volume of 77,296,133 shares. The stock had previously closed at $281.95.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on TSLA. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Saturday, February 8th. Bank of America cut shares of Tesla from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $400.00 to $490.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Tesla from $295.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Mizuho reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $515.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $318.77.

Tesla Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.02 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $385.35 and its 200-day moving average is $316.70. The stock has a market cap of $943.49 billion, a PE ratio of 143.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.34.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $374.21, for a total transaction of $975,191.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,775,792.65. This trade represents a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.06, for a total transaction of $39,792,803.40. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,095,100. This trade represents a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 523,386 shares of company stock valued at $195,995,200. 20.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. World Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 1,248.9% during the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 199,229 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $52,124,000 after purchasing an additional 184,459 shares in the last quarter. Destination Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 12.1% during the third quarter. Destination Wealth Management now owns 12,597 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $3,296,000 after purchasing an additional 1,359 shares in the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 59.2% during the third quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 117,457 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $30,593,000 after purchasing an additional 43,685 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 126.7% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 1,594 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $644,000 after purchasing an additional 891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 3.3% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 309,382 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $80,944,000 after purchasing an additional 9,919 shares in 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.