The Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) share price closed on Friday at US$261.77.
Yesterday (overnight Aussie time) shares in Elon Musk's booming tech stock ended the day trading for $279.82 apiece.
That's a one-day gain of 6.9%, and it sees the global EV company approaching the US$1 trillion market cap.
$279.82 also represents a new 2023 high for the Tesla share price. Investors who bought the stock at the opening bell on 3 January will now be sitting on gains of 159%.
So, what's piquing investor interest?
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Why did the Tesla share price surge again?
Investors bid up the Tesla share price after the company reported it produced 479,700 vehicles and delivered 466,140 in the past quarter.
That represents a new record for the company. And it handily beat the consensus-estimated.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast the company would deliver 448,350 over the quarter.
Indeed, cutting prices across the Tesla lineup seems to have worked a charm. At least in terms of deliveries.
The impact on profitability remains to be seen.
The Tesla share price could make another big move, higher or lower, when the company releases its financial results for the second quarter on 19 July (20 July down under).
"Tesla has delivered upon its unit volume expectations when the shares were last trading at this level, but at the sacrifice of substantial revenue and margin," JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman cautioned.
Ben Kallo, an analyst at Robert W Baird was more upbeat.
According to Kallo (quoted by Bloomberg), "It's a big beat. People were still bracing for another round of price cuts, and this big delivery number makes that less of a risk."
While Tesla produced 13,560 more cars than it delivered over the quarter, Kallo said the gap is closing:
Everyone was worried about inventory build, and it looks like they've normalised. The delta between production and deliveries is shrinking, which is what Tesla said they would do.
Despite the huge leap this year, the Tesla share price has a long way to go before recouping its November 2021 all-time high of $409 per share.
Stay tuned.
