Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Upgraded to “Outperform” at Mizuho

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was upgraded by Mizuho from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $515.00 target price on the electric vehicle producer’s stock, up from their prior target price of $230.00. Mizuho’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 11.23% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $287.00 to $411.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $254.00 to $278.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $197.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Tesla presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $266.00.

Tesla Price Performance

NASDAQ TSLA opened at $463.02 on Tuesday. Tesla has a 12 month low of $138.80 and a 12 month high of $463.19. The stock has a market cap of $1.49 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 126.85, a PEG ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 2.36. The company’s 50 day moving average is $306.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $249.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its 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. Tesla had a net margin of 13.07% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The company had revenue of $25.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.53 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Tesla will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In related news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $314.44, for a total value of $35,339,911.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares in the company, valued at $26,727,400. The trade was a 56.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $374.21, for a total value of $975,191.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,775,792.65. The trade was a 2.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 522,886 shares of company stock worth $171,393,831 over the last three months. 20.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Tesla

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Clean Yield Group lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 60.0% during the 3rd quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.