Bank of America Upgrades Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) to Buy

Bank of America upgraded shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. Bank of America currently has $220.00 price target on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. China Renaissance began coverage on Tesla in a research report on Monday, February 26th. They issued a hold rating for the company. TD Cowen lowered their price target on Tesla from $200.00 to $180.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Tesla from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $298.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on Tesla in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. They set a sell rating and a $170.00 target price for the company. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $186.70.

Tesla Trading Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ TSLA opened at $168.29 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $536.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.93, a PEG ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 2.39. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $175.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $207.61. Tesla has a 12 month low of $138.80 and a 12 month high of $299.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $25.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.64 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 14.37% and a return on equity of 13.18%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.07 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Tesla will post 1.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 93,705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.44, for a total value of $16,439,605.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 15,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,631,600. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.20, for a total transaction of $1,850,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 31,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,502,726. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 93,705 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.44, for a total value of $16,439,605.20. Following the sale, the director now owns 15,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,631,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 209,098 shares of company stock worth $38,802,534 in the last quarter. 25.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Tesla by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 229,806,372 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $57,102,287,000 after acquiring an additional 3,866,361 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at about $7,844,757,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Tesla by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 30,160,747 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $7,546,823,000 after acquiring an additional 2,177,397 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Tesla by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,040,734 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $7,266,572,000 after acquiring an additional 269,182 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Tesla by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 27,542,824 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,891,765,000 after acquiring an additional 909,170 shares during the last quarter. 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.