If Tesla is able to reach its goal of being a consistently profitable carmaker, the company and Chief Executive Elon Musk will probably be able to use the third quarter of 2018 as the milestone.
That’s the opinion of many Tesla analysts, as the company’s most recent business report continued to attraction positive attention on Wall Street on Thursday.
Tesla shares closed 9 percent higher, to $314.86, Thursday, the day after the company’s better-than-expected third-quarter results. Late Wednesday, Tesla posted a profit, excluding one-time items, of $2.90 a share on $6.9 billion in revenue. During the same period a year ago, Tesla lost $2.92 a share on $2.98 billion in sales. Tesla’s results topped the estimates of analysts surveyed by FactSet, who had forecast the company to lose 5 cents a share on revenue of $6.1 billion.
It was the first time in two years that Tesla reported a quarterly profit, and only the third time in Tesla’s history as a publicly traded company.
Tesla’s results were highlighted by strong sales of its Model 3 sedan. The company said it delivered 56,065 Model 3s during the quarter, and that its data shows consumers have been willing to upgrade to the sedan from their lower-priced cars even though the Model 3 still comes with a price tag that, according to Tesla, started at $49,000 in the quarter. Tesla said more than half the cars traded in during the third quarter cost $35,000 when they were new.
“(The) Model 3 appears to be benefiting from success with customers who have historically not purchased premium cars,” said analyst Gene Munster, of Loup Ventures.
Munster also said another factor in Tesla’s favor is that the third-quarter earnings suggest the company is “on track” to meet its $1.7 billion in debt obligations over the coming year. Tesla has debt payments of $230 million due in November, $920 million due in March 2019 and another $566 million scheduled for repayment in November 2019.
Maynard Um, who covers Tesla for Macquarie Research, called the results “the turning point for Tesla,” and added that he expects the company has “still more (room) to run.”
“We believe there are very few companies in this environment that have as strong demand visibility over the next few quarters, which will only improve as(car order) reservations open to Europe and China by year-end,” said Um in a research report. Um holds a rating of outperform, or the equivalent of buy, and a $430-a-share target price on Tesla’s stock.
