Tesla returns to profitability and tops Wall Street's third-quarter earnings expectations

Key figures:

• Earnings: $1.91 per share versus estimates of $-0.24 per share
• Revenue: $6.3 billion versus estimates of $6.45 billion
• Gross Margin: 18.9% versus estimates of 17.7%

I expect this time next year for things to look even better as GF in China ramps up.

 

Good for them, let’s hope they continue on this trend going forward and hope they turned the corner.

 

I bet they were able to start recognizing some of their deferred revenue from FSD due to v10 releasing. I have always said their cash flows from operations is the metric that is most important from Tesla so this profitability jump isn't that big a deal. If cash flow from operations is again positive, its a great sign that they are stable financially.

Edit: Actually they made $756M in operating cash! They actually only spent $500M in investing activities related to their factories so they did really well.

 

But where did that $756M actually come from? Was it true profits from business, or simply the never-ending Gravy-Train flow of money from investors that kept propping the company up for years in spite of operating losses?

If it is true profits, then good.........yes, that is a step forward.

 

It's operating cash meaning business only cash. You're thinking of financing cash which they haven't needed for a while now. They said they are self funding last quarter (like I said a million times before). They are making money at this point and growing their cash balance.

 

In a few weeks, my Model 3 will get a power bump of 5% I love this car.

1:54:15 (Elon Musk) - "Oh I forgot to mention we're also expecting there's going to be an over the air improvement..that will improve the power of S,X, and 3. That's oh by the way coming in a few weeks...um should be something on the order of 5% power improvement due to improved firmware. Drew, do you want to say anything on that?"

1:54:37 (Drew Baglino) - Uh yeah we just continue learn how to optimize motor control in our products, so yeah 5% improvement for all model 3 customers and 3% for our S and X."

 

Tesla is way, way ahead when it comes to over the air updates getting more power for free is the cherry on top.

 

I love it when others argue their manufacturers also do over the air updates. It's amateur hour compared to Tesla. The horsepower should be around 497hp. When it first launched, it was only about 450hp.

 

Ezz, please don’t proactively incite (off topic) arguments.... happening too often lately.

Let’s keep this thread on topic of profitability announcement.

 

dont forget the carbon credits it sells, which is 100% a govt created scam

 

Sure. It was announced during the earnings call.

Btw, those who didn't listen should visit the Tesla investor website and listen. Some other nice things is that Model Y should have the same build cost as the model 3 which should drive increased gross margin because it will be priced higher. Also, their cash flows were very positive because they've figured out how to build a factory for cheaper so they needed less capex.

 

How is that off topic? It's facts that were part of the earnings call and features like over the air are one of the things that differentiate Tesla and make their care more desirable versus the competition, hence more sales and potential profit. It is 100% on topic.

 

The operating profit this quarter was $261M. The carbon credit is $134M so they netted a profit even after the credit sale.

 

Now that is awesome and no one can argue that. Other ICE manufacturers with turbo cars could do that but they never will, ever.

 

They can't because changes to fuel mapping and the like will potentially change emissions meaning the car will no longer be legal.