Tesla delivered 367,500 cars last year

Tesla sold 112,000 cars last quarter and 367,500 in 2019, the company reported Friday. That met the company’s forecast, which some analysts believed Tesla was in danger of missing. Tesla (TSLA) delivered 50% more vehicles than the previous year. Its fourth-quarter vehicle sales set a quarterly sales record and rose 15% from the prior quarter. Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives called the sales report “another major feather in the cap for Musk & Co. by handily beating” Wall Street’s expectation that the company would only produce about 106,000 cars in the fourth quarter. The company reported Friday that it sold 19,450 Model S and X vehicles last quarter, down from more than 27,000 during the same period a year prior. But sales of the company’s more mainstream Model 3 sedan came to 92,550 — up nearly 50% from a year earlier. Expanding its presence in foreign markets is considered key to Tesla’s long-term success. Ives noted that he thinks the major sales bump speaks “to the momentum Tesla is seeing specifically in Europe.” The company also began producing cars at a new factory in Shanghai about a month ago, and it’s already produced just under 1,000 cars there, and it has deliveries. Tesla achieved the sales growth in 2019 even as established automakers are bringing in new competition with all-electric vehicles of their own and tax credits in the United States were phased out. As of this week, US buyers will no longer receive any federal tax benefits on Tesla purchases. Ives added that Tesla’s recent stock rally is indicative of “underlying fundamental improvement [in] the company’s ability to impressively not just talk the talk but walk the walk.” And that’s making investors optimistic. The company’s stock is up 3% in premarket trading after rising Thursday. Earlier this week, Tesla’s stock fell 4% after an analyst predicted the company will miss its sales target in the fourth quarter and fall short of its mission to deliver between 360,000 to 400,000 cars in 2019. Tesla is paid in full for vehicles whenever they’re handed over to drivers, so the company’s reported deliveries are essentially synonymous with sales. Cowen auto analyst Jeff Osborne predicted in a note to investors Monday that Tesla would come in just short of its 2019 sales target. He attributed most of that dour forecast to softer-than-expected sales of Tesla’s two luxury models: the Model S and Model X. Osborne estimated that would hurt Tesla’s chances of posting another profitable earnings report for the fourth quarter, and lead to a steep stock price drop in 2020. Tesla is set to report its full fourth-quarter financials in the next few weeks.