Tesla up on surprise profit and reassurance on capital plans
Sceptical Wall Street analysts expect the electric car maker to hit the market for money sooner than Elon Musk suggests
Ghosh — Tesla Motors’s shares rose more than 5% on Thursday as investors welcomed the electric car maker’s first quarterly profit in more than three years and its reassurance that the Model 3 sedan would not need new capital. Tesla boss Elon Musk said on Wednesday the company’s current plan did not require new funding, after going back and forth this month about needing to raise money to fund the launch. Tesla, whose shares have fallen nearly 16% this year, said its profits were helped by nearly $139m in sales of clean car credits. Tesla’s shares rose to $213.40 in morning trade on Thursday. Wall Street analysts, however, remained sceptical and said they expected the company to hit the market for money sooner than Musk had suggested. "Management asserted that it would not need to raise cash, but our model forecasts Tesla ending 2018 with $575m, which we think is too close for comfort," Cowen and Co analyst Jeffrey Osborne said in a note. He rates the stock "underperform".
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