What happened
Shares of electric-car company Tesla (TSLA 12.06%) jumped on Wednesday, rising as much as 8.2%. The stock is up 6.9% at the time of this writing.
The stock's rise follows Tesla's annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday afternoon. The stock may be moving higher because Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed Tesla is on track with its ambitious production and profitability targets. Another reason for the stock's rise could be optimistic comments from an analyst.
Model 3. Image source: Tesla.
So what
Many investors have viewed Tesla's production targets for Model 3 as overly optimistic. After all, the automaker has already delayed production targets for the vehicle twice. But Musk said on Tuesday that the company continues to maintain its revised target for a Model 3 production rate of 5,000 units per week around the end of its second quarter. With the end of its second quarter just a few weeks away, it's getting tougher to dismiss this ambitious production goal.
In addition, Robert Baird analyst Ben Kallo was upbeat about Tesla stock in an interview with Bloomberg. Kallo, who has a $411 price target on the stock, cites Tesla's rapid growth in its business and its "under-owned" shares as reasons to be optimistic.
Now what
With Model 3 production rising rapidly and Tesla still expecting to achieve a production rate for its Model 3 of 5,000 units per week by the end of June, management still is guiding for GAAP profitability in both Q3 and Q4. By achieving this, Musk says Tesla won't need to raise capital through debt or equity during 2018.
