Tesla Breaks Another Record, But Did It Break Even?
Bigger orders, deliveries and production still don’t bode well for profits.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Photographer: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
Tesla Inc.’s quarterly deliveries announcements are not what they were, mainly because they’re so brief these days. Wednesday evening’s still managed to spark a 4% sell-off in immediate after-hours trading. On one level, that barely counts given this stock’s volatility. On the other, there were a couple of nuggets in the release that warrant watching.
Most obviously, Tesla didn’t quite hit the 100,000 deliveries number CEO Elon Musk told employees was within reach in an email that leaked last week (and sparked a 6% rally, naturally). As any reporter covering the Dow will tell you, round numbers exert a mysterious hold on investors, so being 3,000 shy of six-figure deliveries will have dampened animal spirits somewhat. And Tesla now needs to deliver almost 105,000 in the fourth quarter to make the low end of annual guidance.