Prudential Financial Inc. Acquires 114,681 Shares of Tesla, Inc. $TSLA

Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 4.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,517,836 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 114,681 shares during the quarter. Tesla makes up 1.0% of Prudential Financial Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Prudential Financial Inc. owned 0.08% of Tesla worth $799,816,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in TSLA. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Tesla by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 251,390,681 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $79,856,764,000 after purchasing an additional 4,502,976 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Tesla by 2.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 64,767,993 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $20,480,477,000 after buying an additional 1,269,304 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Tesla by 322.1% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 26,590,525 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $6,891,201,000 after acquiring an additional 20,291,139 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Tesla by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 20,225,098 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $6,424,705,000 after acquiring an additional 1,134,678 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Tesla by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,576,698 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $5,901,074,000 after purchasing an additional 401,757 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on TSLA shares. Mizuho increased their price objective on Tesla from $450.00 to $485.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Baird R W raised shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Tesla from $440.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, CICC Research boosted their price target on Tesla from $360.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and ten have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $394.31.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $352.38, for a total transaction of $918,302.28. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 9,856 shares in the company, valued at $3,473,057.28. This represents a 20.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 20,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.75, for a total transaction of $7,275,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 47,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,314,500. This trade represents a 29.59% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 202,606 shares of company stock worth $75,588,902. Company insiders own 19.90% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA opened at $391.09 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.30 trillion, a P/E ratio of 260.73, a PEG ratio of 16.84 and a beta of 2.06. Tesla, Inc. has a twelve month low of $214.25 and a twelve month high of $488.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a 50 day moving average of $433.55 and a 200 day moving average of $364.93.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $28.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $24.98 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 6.61% and a net margin of 5.51%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.72 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.