The world’s richest person got much richer Thursday as Tesla CEO Elon Musk enjoyed a historic rally for Tesla stock after the electric vehicle company’s latest earnings report encouraged Wall Street.
KEY FACTS
- Tesla’s share price spiked about 22% in Thursday trading, good for its second-largest percentage gain ever and its best day since May 9, 2013.
- That came as investors reacted positively to the big third-quarter profit beat, the most cash generation in eight quarters and several encouraging tidbits shared by Musk on the accompanying analyst conference call, such as a prediction for up to 30% vehicle delivery growth in 2025, reversing this year’s 2% year-over-year delivery decline through the first three quarters.
- The earnings report “reminds us growing the auto business profitably remains a high priority for Tesla,” wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, alluding to prior concerns about Tesla’s shrinking profit margins as it emphasizes self-driving car initiatives.
FORBES EVALUATION
The rally added $26.4 billion to the fortune of Tesla’s largest shareholder Musk, whose lead as the wealthiest person alive grew to more than $55 billion, according to our calculations.
CHIEF CRITIC
Despite the overwhelmingly positive stock reaction, this wouldn’t be a Tesla event if it wasn’t polarizing. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi slammed Wednesday’s earnings call as “more akin to a pep rally” than a typical meeting, noting the company took an unusually light two questions from sell-side analysts covering the stock.
BIG NUMBER
$150 billion. That’s about how much market capitalization Tesla added Thursday. The rally turned the stock’s year-to-date performance from a 14% loss through Wednesday to an almost 5% gain.
TANGENT
Musk reportedly received a letter from the Justice Department warning his pro-Donald Trump political action committee may be breaking federal law by awarding $1 million to certain swing state voters, as Musk becomes one of the biggest political donors this election cycle with his backing of the GOP candidate Trump.
