Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp Invests $3.96 Million in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp bought a new stake in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 9,800 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock, valued at approximately $3,958,000. Tesla makes up approximately 3.6% of Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Horrell Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Tesla by 75.6% during the fourth quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 79 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. GS Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Tesla by 193.3% during the fourth quarter. GS Investments Inc. now owns 88 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. CoreFirst Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in Tesla during the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC acquired a new position in Tesla during the fourth quarter valued at $44,000. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the fourth quarter worth approximately $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on TSLA. New Street Research upgraded Tesla from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $460.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Tesla from $492.00 to $474.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Tesla from $440.00 to $370.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “mixed” rating on shares of Tesla in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Tesla from $135.00 to $130.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $318.93.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other news, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 112,390 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $384.04, for a total transaction of $43,162,255.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 85,000 shares in the company, valued at $32,643,400. This represents a 56.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $413.56, for a total value of $2,894,920.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,063,565.40. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 477,228 shares of company stock valued at $166,849,043. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Tesla Trading Up 3.4 %

NASDAQ TSLA opened at $287.95 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a market capitalization of $926.20 billion, a PE ratio of 141.15, a P/E/G ratio of 5.86 and a beta of 2.50. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $330.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $322.04. Tesla, Inc. has a 12 month low of $138.80 and a 12 month high of $488.54.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.08). Tesla had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 10.31%. Research analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current 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.