What happened
Shares of electric-car maker Tesla (TSLA +2.49%) are kicking off the year with a bang. The stock rose as much as 10.7% on Monday morning. But shares were up 9.2% as of this writing.
The stock is trading sharply higher after the company announced better-than-expected fourth-quarter vehicle deliveries.
Tesla factory. Image source: The Motley Fool.
So what
Tesla said it delivered a record 308,600 vehicles during Q4. This crushed analysts' average forecast for fourth-quarter deliveries of 263,000.
The robust quarterly deliveries are an indication of the company's staggering growth recently. The quarter's deliveries translate to 28% sequential growth and 71% year-over-year growth. Even more impressive is the company's full-year deliveries compared to its prior-year deliveries. Total deliveries in 2021 were 936,172, up 87% year over year from about 500,000 in the year-ago quarter.
Now what
It's not surprising to see shares of the stock rising sharply on this news. Not only does the strong quarter give substance to the stock's frothy valuation, but it also suggests that the company started off 2022 at a high production rate. Extrapolating from the production numbers Tesla provided for its fourth quarter of 2021, the company is producing vehicles at a run rate of more than 1.22 million annually, setting the company up for another year of strong growth.
