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Tesla shares rose Wednesday after the electric-car and battery maker reported better than expected sales and said it is on track to meet its delivery targets for the year.
Revenue in the third-quarter was $2.3 billion, well above the $1.9 billion analysts expected.
The company reported a profit of $111 million, or $0.71 on an adjusted per share basis. That's its first quarterly profit since early 2013.
Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected a loss of $0.54, though that estimate may not be comparable, because the company has changed the way it accounts for some adjustments to its earnings.
Tesla said it expects to remain profitable in the final quarter of the year.
The shares rose as much as 7% after the results, which cap off a period during which the company struck a multi-billion takeover and reported a substantial ramp-up in deliveries. Investors are focusing on Tesla's cash-burn and potential need for additional funds, as it expands production and absorbs solar-power company SolarCity, which it agreed to buy in August.
Tesla said it delivered 24,821, vehicles in the third quarter (300 more than it initially reported), and maintained its second-half estimate of 50,000 deliveries, at the low end of its full-year guidance of 80-90,000.
The company is spending to ramp up Model X SUV production and bring its Nevada battery factory online. The company's third-quarter capital expenditure was $247.6 million, well short of analysts' estimate of $763 million. The company ended the quarter with $3.1 billion in cash and lowered its outlook for capital expenditures for the year to $1.8 billion from the $2.25 billion it had targeted earlier.
During the third quarter, Tesla said it would acquire struggling solar-panel installer SolarCity for $2.6 billion in stock. It will also assume Solar City's net debt of about $2.8 billion, bringing the total deal value to nearly $5.4 billion. Investors will vote on that deal in mid-November.
SolarCity also rose after Tesla's report.
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