Elon Musk has so many businesses that garner attention and make mountains of money, it’s hard to keep track. Today we’re talking about his first love, Tesla, and Musk and every Tesla investor has to be super-charged over the latest financial news.
The company reported impressive third-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday, and Wall Street responded by driving up Tesla stock 5% in Thursday’s early trading.
Tesla beat expectations and recorded its fifth consecutive profitable quarter. Musk’s plan remains aggressive, with work continuing on new factories in Austin, Texas, and Brandenburg, Germany.
Operating expenses jumped 33% from last quarter, to $1.25 billion.
Musk referenced the additions in the company’s earnings call: “I should make a point that for Berlin and Austin, we do expect to start delivering cars from those factories next year, but because of the exponential nature of the spool-up of manufacturing plants, especially one with new technology, we’ll start off very slow at first and then become very large.”
Tesla delivered 139,300 vehicles during the quarter, a record, and its auto revenue comprised $7.6 billion, about 91% of the total for the quarter.
The company’s goal is 500,000 deliveries this year, according to Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn on Wednesday’s call, and in 2021 and 2022, Tesla plans to spend far more than it had planned, particularly with regard to new factories and expansion.
Wall Street analysts were impressed, with Wedbush Securities citing the “manufacturing efficiency and success Tesla is seeing especially out of China with Giga 3 front and center leading the way.”
Wedbush continued: “With the red ink now in the rearview mirror, the Street is focused on an impressive profitability ramp for Tesla into 2021, which appears right on target based on the numbers Musk & Co. delivered last night, while importantly maintaining its 500k unit delivery numbers for the year, which was a pipe dream six months ago.”
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