Phillip Securities Downgrades Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) to Strong Sell

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Phillip Securities from a “moderate sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

TSLA has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Tesla from $300.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Tesla from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. New Street Research cut Tesla from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Tesla from $265.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Tesla in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seventeen have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $228.24.

Tesla Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA traded up $9.06 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $320.24. 66,397,164 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 95,788,797. The company has a market cap of $1.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 87.15, a PEG ratio of 10.73 and a beta of 2.29. Tesla has a 1 year low of $138.80 and a 1 year high of $358.64. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $250.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $219.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.37.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.02, for a total transaction of $34,602,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,400 shares in the company, valued at $1,868,508. 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kimbal Musk sold 60,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.23, for a total value of $15,138,915.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,563,220 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $391,164,540.60. This trade represents a 3.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 188,797 shares of company stock worth $57,616,781 in the last three months. 20.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Tesla

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank & Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Tesla during the second quarter valued at $25,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Tesla during the second quarter valued at $26,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Tesla by 168.8% in the second 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 acquired a new position in Tesla in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Clean Yield Group lifted its stake in Tesla by 60.0% in the third quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 128 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.