Wedbush Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Stock Price

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its price objective dropped by stock analysts at Wedbush from $550.00 to $315.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Wedbush’s target price suggests a potential upside of 31.56% from the stock’s current price.

TSLA has been the subject of a number of other reports. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Tesla from $175.00 to $170.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com lowered Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Tesla from $135.00 to $120.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Tesla from $474.00 to $455.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $305.31.

Tesla Stock Down 10.4 %

NASDAQ:TSLA opened at $239.43 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $770.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 117.37, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 2.02. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $305.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $324.24. Tesla has a 52-week low of $138.80 and a 52-week high of $488.54.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. On average, analysts anticipate that Tesla will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Tesla

In other Tesla news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total value of $13,189,513.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 477,011 shares in the company, valued at $114,859,478.69. This trade represents a 10.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $383.11, for a total transaction of $2,681,770.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 108,965 shares in the company, valued at $41,745,581.15. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 370,228 shares of company stock valued at $122,791,123. Insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Tesla

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. True Wealth Design LLC grew its stake in Tesla by 79.5% in the 4th quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 70 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Tesla by 75.6% in the fourth quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 79 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. GS Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 193.3% during the 4th quarter. GS Investments Inc. now owns 88 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, CoreFirst Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in Tesla in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

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.