Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Down 1.4% – Here’s What Happened

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) dropped 1.4% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $416.58 and last traded at $429.83. Approximately 132,291,301 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 28% from the average daily volume of 103,195,063 shares. The stock had previously closed at $436.00.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TSLA has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Tesla from $345.00 to $435.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Glj Research reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Dbs Bank upped their target price on Tesla from $300.00 to $450.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Mizuho upped their target price on Tesla from $375.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Tesla from $115.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Friday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and eight have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $343.43.

Tesla Stock Down 1.4%

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $364.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $321.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market cap of $1.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 248.46, a PEG ratio of 14.93 and a beta of 2.08.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $22.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.18 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 7.98% and a net margin of 6.54%.Tesla’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.52 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $292.89, for a total value of $1,171,560.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 5,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,735,080.36. This trade represents a 40.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.75, for a total value of $7,275,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 47,600 shares in the company, valued at $17,314,500. This trade represents a 29.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 208,606 shares of company stock valued at $77,360,462. 19.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Tesla by 1.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 251,390,681 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $79,856,764,000 after purchasing an additional 4,502,976 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 valued at $20,480,477,000 after purchasing an additional 1,269,304 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Tesla in the second quarter valued at about $11,839,824,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in Tesla by 322.1% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 26,590,525 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,891,201,000 after purchasing an additional 20,291,139 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Tesla by 5.9% during the second 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 during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.