Defender Capital LLC. Has $3.81 Million Position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Defender Capital LLC. grew its position in shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 68.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,427 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after buying an additional 3,831 shares during the quarter. Tesla makes up approximately 1.4% of Defender Capital LLC.’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Defender Capital LLC.’s holdings in Tesla were worth $3,807,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of TSLA. Transcendent Capital Group LLC bought a new position in Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Clean Yield Group lifted its stake in Tesla by 60.0% during the third quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. Finley Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Tesla in the 4th quarter valued at $64,000. Finally, E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Tesla by 692.6% during the 3rd quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 214 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total value of $34,602,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at $1,868,508. This represents a 94.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total value of $2,894,920.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,063,565.40. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 553,386 shares of company stock worth $196,305,796 in the last three months. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on TSLA shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Tesla from $400.00 to $430.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. New Street Research raised shares of Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $460.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. HSBC reaffirmed a “reduce” rating and set a $124.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Roth Mkm raised Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $380.00 in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Roth Capital raised Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Tesla currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $318.31.

Tesla Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Tesla stock opened at $404.60 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 198.33, a P/E/G ratio of 8.08 and a beta of 2.30. Tesla, Inc. has a 52-week low of $138.80 and a 52-week high of $488.54. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $404.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $299.34.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.54%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.82 EPS for the current year.

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.