Tesla Q1 - Making a Profit

Last week Wednesday, Tesla released their Q1 numbers and the electric car manufacturer turned a small profit for the first time in history. The company seems to have enjoyed a good quarter in both production and deliveries, notwithstanding the coronavirus inspired shutdown towards the end of the first quarter .

Tesla made revenues of $5.985 billion which was within its own expectations, but with a surprise profit of $0.09 per share. The Model Y contributed to the electric carmaker's profits. This was the first time in Tesla's history that a new product line was profitable in its first quarter. The great news for shareholders is that Tesla raised $2 billion in February 2020 at $767, talk about good timing. Today Tesla sits on a cash pile of just over $8.1 billion which will help the company navigate through these tough times.

The Gigafactory in Shanghai, China which produces the Model 3 continued to contribute positively to Tesla's volume growth thanks to strong demand in China. There's still no timeline of when the company expects go back into production in the Fremont, California plant as the state is still under lockdown. There was also no update on any guidance for the current quarter and the rest of the year.

These were good results considering where we are today, but the issue of producing over 15 000 cars that couldn't be delivered still stands as it had a negative impact on the carmakers cash flows. On Friday, Elon Musk tweeted "Tesla stock price is too high imo". This sent the share price down by just over 10% after hours.