Fermata Advisors LLC Lowers Position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Fermata Advisors LLC cut its stake in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 7.5% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,465 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Fermata Advisors LLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $639,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Tesla by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 243,193,181 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $98,211,134,000 after buying an additional 3,571,793 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Tesla by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 61,011,604 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $24,566,217,000 after buying an additional 1,655,203 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Tesla in the fourth quarter worth about $14,420,248,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 40.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 34,661,400 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $13,997,660,000 after purchasing an additional 9,920,325 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 21.6% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 28,579,615 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $11,541,592,000 after purchasing an additional 5,075,418 shares during the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on TSLA. Raymond James lowered shares of Tesla to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Tesla from $325.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 target price (up from $350.00) on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $450.00 target price on shares of Tesla and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $293.97.

Tesla Trading Down 3.5%

NASDAQ:TSLA opened at $332.05 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Tesla, Inc. has a 12 month low of $167.41 and a 12 month high of $488.54. The company has a market cap of $1.07 trillion, a PE ratio of 162.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.47. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $291.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $334.34.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.26). The company had revenue of $19.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $22.93 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 10.31% and a net margin of 7.26%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.45 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In other news, Director Ira Matthew Ehrenpreis sold 477,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $357.30, for a total value of $170,636,475.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 855,394 shares in the company, valued at $305,632,276.20. This represents a 35.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director James R. Murdoch sold 54,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.79, for a total transaction of $13,189,513.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 477,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $114,859,478.69. This represents a 10.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 870,721 shares of company stock worth $286,248,728 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

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.