Ballast Advisors LLC Reduces Holdings in Tesla, Inc. $TSLA

Ballast Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,081 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after selling 146 shares during the period. Ballast Advisors LLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $1,614,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of TSLA. Siren L.L.C. purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the first quarter valued at $2,332,000. Zuckerman Investment Group LLC raised its stake in Tesla by 6.9% in 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 during the last quarter. Keystone Global Partners LLC purchased a new position in Tesla in the 1st quarter valued at about $594,000. Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla during the 1st quarter worth about $205,495,000. Finally, IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its position in shares of Tesla by 8.5% in the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 586,460 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $153,436,000 after buying an additional 46,087 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. New Street Research raised their target price on shares of Tesla from $465.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price objective on Tesla from $490.00 to $482.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen upgraded Tesla from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Guggenheim reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $175.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $483.00 price target on Tesla and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and eleven have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $381.70.

Tesla Trading Down 3.4%

NASDAQ TSLA opened at $433.72 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.44 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 289.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 15.59 and a beta of 2.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 1.55. Tesla, Inc. has a 12 month low of $214.25 and a 12 month high of $488.54. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $398.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $340.74.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other Tesla news, 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 sale, the chief financial officer owned 9,856 shares in the company, valued at $3,473,057.28. This represents a 20.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director James R. Murdoch sold 60,000 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the director directly owned 637,031 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $269,260,263.08. This represents a 8.61% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 202,606 shares of company stock worth $75,588,902 over the last quarter. 19.90% 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.