Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $479.86, but opened at $466.50. Tesla shares last traded at $469.91, with a volume of 20,866,948 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on TSLA. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Tesla from $280.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Tesla from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Tesla from $250.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Tesla from a “moderate sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $272.06.

Tesla Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $310.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $251.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The company has a market capitalization of $1.53 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 130.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.36.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.47 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. Tesla’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $352.54, for a total transaction of $35,254,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at $1,903,716. The trade was a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $2,000,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 105,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,258,000. This represents a 7.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 522,886 shares of company stock valued at $171,393,831. 20.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new position in Tesla during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Tesla by 168.8% during the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 129 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Transcendent Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Tesla during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Clean Yield Group increased its stake in shares of Tesla by 60.0% in the third quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Tesla during the third quarter valued at $35,000. 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.