Empirical Asset Management LLC Raises Stake in Tesla, Inc. $TSLA

Empirical Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 3.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,815 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the period. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $1,212,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Means Investment CO. Inc. increased its stake in Tesla by 37.7% during the 1st quarter. Means Investment CO. Inc. now owns 23,089 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $5,984,000 after purchasing an additional 6,323 shares in the last quarter. Siren L.L.C. bought a new stake in Tesla during the 1st quarter valued at about $2,332,000. Zuckerman Investment Group LLC increased its stake in Tesla by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Zuckerman Investment Group LLC now owns 12,748 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $3,304,000 after purchasing an additional 826 shares in the last quarter. Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new stake in Tesla during the 1st quarter valued at about $594,000. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new stake in Tesla during the 1st quarter valued at about $205,495,000. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TSLA has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Tesla from $235.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Melius initiated coverage on shares of Tesla in a research note on Monday, October 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $520.00 price target for the company. CICC Research lifted their price target on shares of Tesla from $360.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Sunday, July 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and ten have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $363.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, Director James R. Murdoch sold 120,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.29, for a total value of $42,034,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 697,031 shares in the company, valued at $244,162,988.99. This represents a 14.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.38, for a total transaction of $918,302.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 9,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,473,057.28. The trade was a 20.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 202,606 shares of company stock worth $75,588,902 over the last three months. 19.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Tesla Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA opened at $439.31 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $387.54 and a 200 day moving average of $333.25. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $1.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 253.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 15.41 and a beta of 2.08. Tesla, Inc. has a 12-month low of $212.11 and a 12-month high of $488.54.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $23.18 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 6.54% and a return on equity of 7.98%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

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.