Credit: Shutterstock photoElon Musk, chairman and CEO of Tesla Inc. ( TSLA ), purchased 95,420 shares on March 17 for $262 per share, according to a filing with the SEC.
Musk now owns over 33.6 million shares of the company.
The company was named after Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American inventor who invented the alternating current ( AC ) induction motor, which many people consider to be the greatest invention of all time because it enabled electricity to travel hundreds of miles.
Before Tesla's alternating current, Thomas Edison's direct current was being used. But with a direct current, electricity could only travel short distances. For direct current to operate, there needed to be a power station within a radius of 1.2 miles because electricity lost energy as it traveled through the wires. Direct current also carried significantly less power and only had the ability to illuminate dwellings.
Tesla designs, develops, manufactures and sells high-performance, fully electric vehicles and electric vehicle powertrain components. The company is run by Musk, who also serves as product architect and co-founded PayPal ( PYPL ) .
Tesla has a market cap of $34.72 billion, an enterprise value of $39.24 billion, a price-book (P/B) ratio of 8.55, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 0.72.
According to GuruFocus, Tesla has a 4 of 10 financial strength rating with a cash-debt ratio of 0.48 and an equity-asset ratio of 0.21. Its Altman Z-Score of 1.22 indicates the company is in the distress zone and could potentially file for bankruptcy within the next two years.
The company has a 6 of 10 profitability and growth rating. It has an operating margin of -9.53%, a net margin of -9.64%, a return on assets (ROA) of -5.24% and a three-year revenue growth rate of 42.30%.
Gurus PRIMECAP Management ( Trades , Portfolio ) , Ron Baron (Trades, Portfolio), Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) and Murray Stahl (Trades, Portfolio) all added to their positions in Tesla during the fourth quarter of 2016.
Tesla's market price has gained an estimated 28% since fourth-quarter 2016.
Disclosure: Author does not own any shares of this company.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus .
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
