Vawter Financial Ltd. Acquires New Position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Vawter Financial Ltd. purchased a new position in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 517 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Hengehold Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Tesla by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Hengehold Capital Management LLC now owns 1,347 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $544,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI grew its stake in shares of Tesla by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI now owns 6,990 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $2,823,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Acropolis Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Tesla by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Acropolis Investment Management LLC now owns 2,814 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,136,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Mount Vernon Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Tesla by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Mount Vernon Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,305 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $2,950,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Vista Finance LLC grew its stake in Tesla by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vista Finance LLC now owns 3,510 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $1,417,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Tesla from $400.00 to $430.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Tesla from $226.00 to $259.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Tesla from $515.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $365.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Tesla presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $326.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.43, for a total transaction of $2,481,010.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 105,032 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,226,491.76. This represents a 6.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kimbal Musk sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $367.87, for a total value of $27,590,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,463,220 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $538,274,741.40. This trade represents a 4.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 523,386 shares of company stock valued at $195,995,200. Insiders own 20.70% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Stock Down 4.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ TSLA opened at $337.80 on Friday. 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 50-day moving average price of $400.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $312.40. Tesla, Inc. has a 52 week low of $138.80 and a 52 week high of $488.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 165.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.97 and a beta of 2.34.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a return on equity of 10.31% and a net margin of 7.26%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal 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.