According to foreign media reports, Tesla broke its quarterly delivery record and ushered in a strong start to the new year.
On January 3, EST, Tesla's stock price rose 14%, the biggest gain since March last year and the best start to the year since Tesla went public. On that day, Tesla's market capitalization increased by $144 billion, an increase equivalent to the market capitalization of Honeywell International or Starbucks, and also exceeded the market capitalization of nearly 90% of the companies in the S&P 500 index. More importantly, the Global Corporate Stock Price and Market Capitalization Data Website shows that Tesla's market value increased even more than that of almost all major automakers except Toyota.
In addition, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk's personal wealth increased by $33.8 billion to $304.2 billion on the same day, firmly positioning himself as the world's richest man, while Jeff Bezos ranked second with a net worth of $196 billion.
(Image source: Companies Market Cap website)
In the fourth quarter of last year, Tesla sold 308,600 vehicles worldwide, well above the average expected sales of analysts (about 263,000 units) and also surpassed the company's record sales of 241,300 units in the third quarter of last year. On January 2, Tesla said it would sell 936,000 vehicles worldwide in 2021, up 87 percent year-on-year. Tesla has repeatedly said that it expects sales to grow at an annual rate of 50% in the coming years.
Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in an email, "For Tesla, the fourth quarter of last year was a quarter to show off because the company even exceeded analyst expectations." He called it an "amazing performance" at the end of the year that gave Tesla a "huge boost" to 2022.
In a note to customers, Ives said Tesla's record quarterly results highlight the "green wave" that the company and Musk are setting off, as well as the strong demand for electric vehicles in the Chinese market and Tesla's ability to cope with the global semiconductor shortage. Tesla's seventh consecutive quarter of sales growth comes at a time when the global semiconductor industry has been hit by a shock that has affected the production of most other automakers and affected sales amid rising consumer demand.
Quarterly sales are one of Tesla's most watched metrics, which not only underpins the company's financial performance, but is also seen as a "barometer" of consumer demand for electric vehicles as a whole, as the company leads the development of electric vehicles.
(Image source: Tesla)
Jeffrey Osborne, an analyst at investment bank Cowen, said, "Tesla has maintained excellent performance, with sales and production exceeding general expectations. With increasing competition from incumbents and start-ups, we believe 2022 will be a pivotal year for Tesla. ”
In 2021, Tesla's stock price soared nearly 50 percent, with a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion, making it one of the few U.S. public companies to reach that level.