Tesla, Elon Musk’s much hyped, and much questioned, electric car maker is on a roll. Its stock price soared to nearly $650 a share Wednesday after the company’s sales and earnings reports topped Wall Street forecasts for the final three months of 2019.
The company’s controversial founder also predicted Wednesday that Tesla would ship a half-million Model 3s next year — an ambitious goal for a car that some once said would never get off the assembly line and that Musk is now counting to propel the company into the mass market. With a base price of $35,000, the Model 3 is the lowest priced Tesla vehicle.
Tesla confirmed on Wednesday that it delivered 367,000 Model 3s in 2019. Tesla also said a new SUV, the Model Y, is on the way.
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Investors cheered the latest results, pushing shares up $67, or nearly 12%, to an all-time high of $648 in after-hours trading on Wednesday. Tesla’s stock has gained nearly 50% in one month and has more than doubled in the past 12 months.
Tesla became the most valuable U.S. car company ever on Jan. 8, when its stock market value surpassed $89 billion. It’s now valued at about $117 billion, or greater than the market value of such giants as General Electric, UPS or American Express.
Daniel Ives, an analyst who follows the company for Wedbush Securities, called Wednesday’s results a “game changer,” and predicted in a note to clients that the stock could hit $900. “The bull party will likely continue,” Ives wrote.
Boosting the company’s results were better-than-expected sales of the Model 3. The company shipped roughly 112,000 Model 3s in the fourth quarter, or about 5% more than expected. That boosted total sales for the quarter to nearly $7.4 billion and earnings to $174 million.
It was also the second quarter in a row in which the company reported a profit. That hasn’t happened very often for Musk’s 17-year-old car company, which has long been a money loser. For all of 2019. Tesla lost more than $850 million.
