Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Reduces Stake in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC reduced its position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 7.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,022 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after selling 79 shares during the period. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $413,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Samalin Investment Counsel LLC increased its stake in Tesla by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. Samalin Investment Counsel LLC now owns 6,969 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,814,000 after purchasing an additional 737 shares in the last quarter. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in Tesla by 86.2% in the 4th quarter. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC now owns 17,248 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,965,000 after buying an additional 7,983 shares in the last quarter. Mosley Wealth Management grew its holdings in Tesla by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Mosley Wealth Management now owns 1,436 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $559,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors increased its position in Tesla by 77.4% during the fourth quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 1,153 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $466,000 after buying an additional 503 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Guardian Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at $557,000. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Tesla Trading Up 5.3 %

Shares of TSLA opened at $248.71 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $799.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 121.92, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. Tesla, Inc. has a one year low of $138.80 and a one year high of $488.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.02. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $335.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $320.44.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on TSLA shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Tesla from $135.00 to $120.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of Tesla from $175.00 to $170.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Tesla from $135.00 to $130.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Tesla from $195.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Tesla from $440.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Tesla has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $318.93.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In related news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,222,802. The trade was a 94.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 477,228 shares of company stock valued at $166,849,043. Insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Tesla 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.