Citigroup Cuts Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Price Target to $196.00

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) had its target price lowered by Citigroup from $224.00 to $196.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the electric vehicle producer’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on TSLA. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price target on Tesla from $267.00 to $234.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Edward Jones downgraded Tesla from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Tesla from $225.00 to $185.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 29th. KGI Securities reissued a neutral rating and issued a $213.00 target price (down from $309.00) on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on Tesla from $250.00 to $225.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Tesla currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $204.63.

Tesla Stock Performance

Shares of Tesla stock opened at $175.79 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $559.85 billion, a PE ratio of 40.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 2.41. Tesla has a 52 week low of $152.37 and a 52 week high of $299.29. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $187.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $221.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $25.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.64 billion. Tesla had a return on equity of 16.62% and a net margin of 15.50%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.07 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Tesla will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Tesla news, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.17, for a total transaction of $2,143,785.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 31,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,376,229.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Tesla news, SVP Andrew D. Baglino sold 10,500 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.17, for a total transaction of $2,143,785.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 31,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,376,229.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 93,706 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.73, for a total value of $18,247,369.38. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 15,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,920,950. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 198,598 shares of company stock valued at $36,952,434 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 25.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Axiom Financial Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Tesla by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. Axiom Financial Strategies LLC now owns 906 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $777,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Tesla by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,001,923 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $1,079,672,000 after acquiring an additional 164,789 shares in the last quarter. MAS Advisors LLC boosted its position in Tesla by 25.7% during the 1st quarter. MAS Advisors LLC now owns 396 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $433,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Ergoteles LLC boosted its position in Tesla by 33.4% during the 1st quarter. Ergoteles LLC now owns 3,567 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $3,844,000 after acquiring an additional 893 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in Tesla by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 72,167 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $77,767,000 after acquiring an additional 4,593 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.