Vantage Financial Partners LLC Grows Stock Position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Vantage Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 112.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,595 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,494 shares during the period. Vantage Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $1,709,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Tesla by 40.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 34,661,400 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $13,997,660,000 after buying an additional 9,920,325 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Tesla by 21.6% in 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 in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Tesla by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 24,536,519 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $9,908,828,000 after purchasing an additional 158,697 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Tesla by 19.8% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 13,109,178 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $5,294,010,000 after purchasing an additional 2,170,449 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Cfra Research cut Tesla from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Tesla from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Argus reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Monday, June 9th. BNP Paribas set a $137.00 price target on Tesla and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, William Blair lowered Tesla from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $302.75.

Tesla Trading Up 3.5%

NASDAQ TSLA opened at $316.06 on Monday. Tesla, Inc. has a 1-year low of $182.00 and a 1-year high of $488.54. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $324.70 and a 200-day moving average of $313.53. The firm has a market cap of $1.02 trillion, a PE ratio of 182.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.93 and a beta of 2.39.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other Tesla news, Director Kimbal Musk sold 91,588 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $357.39, for a total transaction of $32,732,635.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 1,463,220 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $522,940,195.80. This represents a 5.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.81, for a total value of $4,857,150.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 67,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,889,556. The trade was a 18.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 835,509 shares of company stock worth $279,420,485 over the last three months. 20.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Tesla 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.