Rafferty Asset Management LLC Increases Position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 55.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,945,331 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,050,119 shares during the period. Tesla accounts for 4.2% of Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $1,189,442,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of TSLA. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Tesla by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 243,193,181 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $98,211,134,000 after purchasing an additional 3,571,793 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 1,655,203 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Tesla during the fourth quarter valued at about $14,420,248,000. FMR LLC raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 9,920,325 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Tesla by 21.6% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 28,579,615 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $11,541,592,000 after buying an additional 5,075,418 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on TSLA. BNP Paribas set a $137.00 target price on shares of Tesla and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Cowen upgraded shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Glj Research restated a “sell” rating and set a $19.05 price objective (down from $24.86) on shares of Tesla in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $350.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $170.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $287.46.

Tesla Trading Up 4.1%

NASDAQ TSLA opened at $347.68 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The firm has a market cap of $1.12 trillion, a PE ratio of 170.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.43. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $262.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $328.41. Tesla, Inc. has a 52 week low of $167.41 and a 52 week high of $488.54.

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 firm had revenue of $19.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 firm earned $0.45 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Tesla news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $299.61, for a total transaction of $33,673,167.90. Following the sale, the director now owns 85,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,466,850. The trade was a 56.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.02, for a total transaction of $1,776,120.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 23,084 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,833,325.68. This represents a 20.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 412,623 shares of company stock worth $115,600,501 in the last 90 days. 20.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.