Stifel Nicolaus Cuts Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Price Target to $455.00

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price target decreased by research analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $474.00 to $455.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price target suggests a potential upside of 72.64% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on TSLA. UBS Group cut their price target on Tesla from $259.00 to $225.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Benchmark started coverage on Tesla in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $475.00 price target for the company. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $404.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $317.75.

Tesla Trading Down 3.5 %

Shares of Tesla stock opened at $263.55 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.02. 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 $321.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $323.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $847.71 billion, a PE ratio of 129.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 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 will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other 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 value of $41,163,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,222,802. The trade was a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was 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 approximately $45,063,565.40. The trade was a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 477,228 shares of company stock worth $166,849,043. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Milestone Asset Management Group LLC bought a new stake in Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at $1,186,000. Avant Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at about $519,000. Fire Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter worth about $5,424,000. Fulcrum Equity Management grew its stake in shares of Tesla by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Fulcrum Equity Management now owns 1,103 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $445,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M1 Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at about $863,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

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.