Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock surged almost 20% after the electric vehicle maker’s third quarter earnings and profit margin topped expectations, despite revenue falling short.
Tesla shares had gained 19.2% at about $255 in the early afternoon on Thursday.
For Q3, Tesla's earnings per share (EPS) were up 9% year-over-year at $0.72, ahead of estimates of $0.58.
Revenue of $25.18 billion marked an 8% increase for the year-ago quarter but missed estimates of $25.57 billion.
Automotive revenue was up 2% at $20 billion while energy generation and storage revenue grew 52% to $2.38 billion and services and other revenue was up 29% at $2.79 billion.
Tesla’s profit margin, a closely watched measure which took a hit as the automaker carried out a series of price cuts in recent quarters to boost demand, improved to 19.8% from 17.9% in Q3 2023 and 18% in Q2 2024.
Analysts had been expecting a profit margin of 17.2%.
Operational highlights from the quarter included Tesla’s Cybertruck becoming the third best-selling EV in the US behind the company’s Model Y and Model 3, and achieving more than 2 billion miles driven cumulatively on Full Self Driving (supervised).
Earlier this month, Tesla reported Q3 vehicle deliveries of 462,890, a 6% jump from the same quarter last year and marking the first quarter of growth in 2024.
“We delivered strong results in Q3 with growth in vehicle deliveries both sequentially and year-on-year, resulting in record third quarter volumes,” the company said in a shareholder update.
“Despite sustained macroeconomic headwinds and others pulling back on EV investments, we remain focused on expanding our vehicle and energy product lineup, reducing costs and making critical investments in AI projects and production capacity.”
- Updated by share price movement -