DETROIT (AP) — Record electric vehicle sales in the fourth quarter helped to push Tesla Inc. to its second-straight quarterly profit, giving bullish investors optimism that sustained black ink lies ahead.
The Palo Alto, California, company said it made a net profit of $105 million from October through December, or 58 cents per share but still posted an annual loss of $862 million.
The fourth-quarter earnings almost certainly will continue Tesla’s meteoric stock appreciation. Shares rose about 12 % in after-hours trading Wednesday to $648.
The company said in its quarterly investor letter that it expects to “comfortably” exceed production of 500,000 vehicles at its factories in Fremont, California, and Shanghai.
It expects net profits going forward, with possible some possible exceptions at times surrounding the launch of new products.
“We continue to believe our business has grown to the point of being self-funding,” the investor letter said.
Tesla said the production ramp-up of the Model Y SUV, a key product for the company, has started ahead of schedule in Fremont. Model Y production in Shanghai will start in 2021. The company also said it plans to start producing limited numbers of its electric semi truck this year.
Tesla shares have more than tripled in value since May of last year, pushing the company’s market value above giant German automaker Volkswagen as well as the combined values of General Motors and Ford.
The electric vehicle and solar panel maker's fourth-quarter revenue grew 2% to $7.38 billion as Tesla delivered about 112,000 vehicles during the period and a record 367,500 for the full year.
Fourth-quarter revenue figures beat Wall Street estimates of $6.99 billion, but net income fell short of the $152.4 million expected by analysts polled by FactSet.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
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