TESLA REPORTS BIG JUMP IN THIRD QUARTER, DELIVERING 139,300 AUTOS

Sat 03 October 2020:

Tesla delivered 139,300 autos in the third quarter, topping analyst estimates, according to figures released Friday by the electric car company.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) said on Friday that its sales surged to an all-time high and topped Wall Street estimates in the fiscal third quarter. But the company acknowledged that demand remains uncertain in the upcoming months due to the Coronavirus pandemic. 

Deliveries, a proxy for car sales at Elon Musk’s high-flying company, marked an increase of 43 percent from the year-ago period following the production ramp-up of the Model 3 vehicle.

Ford also reported better-than-expected sales, saying it sold 551,796 vehicles in the third quarter, down 4.9 percent from the 2019 period and better than the 8.0 percent fall that had been projected by Cox Automotive.

Ford pointed to strong demand for its F-series pickup trucks and other larger vehicles.

Automakers have seen surprisingly strong demand for vehicles, fueled by low interest rates and a trend among wealthier consumers shifting funds from vacation and other discretionary items to autos.

But analysts say there are risks to the partial auto industry recovery. These include a limited inventory of vehicles and economic weakness with Washington’s failure thus far to enact another round of stimulus to support households hit by the pandemic.

Shares of Tesla fell 2.6 percent to $436.20 in morning trading, while Ford dipped 0.2 percent to $6.74.

Tesla is aiming half a million in vehicle sales this year

In an announcement last week on Battery Day, CEO Elon Musk expressed confidence that Tesla was aiming half a million in vehicle sales this year or up to 40% higher than 2019. But analyst Joseph Spak of RBC Capital said on Friday:

“We do believe there could be some supply constraint, but bears may also point to some demand concerns. Some of the early data we’ve seen in Europe suggests sales may be softer than expected.”

Tesla performed fairly upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual gain of roughly 30%. At the time of writing, the American electric vehicle and clean energy company has a market cap of £302 billion and a price to earnings ratio of 1,077.88.

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