Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Shares Down 5.1% – Should You Sell?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock price traded down 5.1% on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $443.60 and last traded at $444.26. 86,455,536 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 14% from the average session volume of 101,093,281 shares. The stock had previously closed at $468.37.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird upgraded Tesla from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $320.00 to $548.00 in a research report on Friday, September 19th. President Capital increased their price target on Tesla from $373.00 to $529.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on Tesla from $425.00 to $400.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Melius Research set a $520.00 price target on Tesla and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, New Street Research increased their price target on Tesla from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and eleven have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $391.08.

Tesla Price Performance

The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $412.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $350.47. The company has a current ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 296.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 16.84 and a beta of 2.08.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.02. Tesla had a return on equity of 6.61% and a net margin of 5.51%.The company had revenue of $28.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $24.98 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.72 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $422.68, for a total transaction of $25,360,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 637,031 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $269,260,263.08. This trade represents a 8.61% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.38, for a total value of $918,302.28. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,473,057.28. This trade represents a 20.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 202,606 shares of company stock valued at $75,588,902 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 19.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $79,856,764,000 after acquiring an additional 4,502,976 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 2.0% in the 2nd 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 acquiring an additional 1,269,304 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Tesla in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $11,839,824,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 322.1% in the 1st 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 acquiring an additional 20,291,139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake 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 valued at $6,424,705,000 after acquiring an additional 1,134,678 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.