Tesla, Inc. $TSLA Shares Sold by Meridian Investment Counsel Inc.

Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. cut its position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) by 19.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 769 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after selling 190 shares during the quarter. Meridian Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Tesla were worth $244,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Tesla by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 246,887,705 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $63,983,418,000 after acquiring an additional 3,694,524 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Tesla by 322.1% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 26,590,525 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,891,201,000 after acquiring an additional 20,291,139 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Tesla by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,174,941 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $4,710,218,000 after acquiring an additional 849,091 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 29.4% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 16,771,882 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $4,482,789,000 after buying an additional 3,814,610 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 17.6% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,786,414 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $3,832,047,000 after buying an additional 2,211,300 shares during the period. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Tesla

In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $292.89, for a total value of $1,171,560.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 5,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,735,080.36. The trade was a 40.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director James R. Murdoch sold 120,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.29, for a total transaction of $42,034,800.00. Following the transaction, the director 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 208,606 shares of company stock valued at $77,360,462 over the last three months. 19.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus set a $440.00 price objective on Tesla in a research note on Friday, September 5th. China Renaissance reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $349.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Friday, July 25th. Baird R W upgraded Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 19th. Mizuho increased their target price on Tesla from $375.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $475.00 price objective (up previously from $350.00) on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and nine have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $332.33.

Tesla Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:TSLA opened at $440.40 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $352.05 and a 200-day moving average of $314.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a current ratio of 2.04. Tesla, Inc. has a one year low of $212.11 and a one year high of $488.54. The company has a market capitalization of $1.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 254.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 15.36 and a beta of 2.06.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $22.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.52 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.