Tesla’s value rises by $144 billion

The electric-car maker starts the year off strong by soundly beating its quarterly record for deliveries.

Tesla Inc. is off to a strong start to the new year after the electric-car maker smashed its quarterly record for deliveries in what one analyst called a “trophycase” performance.

The company’s shares jumped 14% in New York, their biggest gain since March and the best start to a year since Tesla went public more than a decade ago. The $144 billion in market value that Tesla added Monday is the equivalent of an entire Honeywell International Inc. or Starbucks Corp. It’s also more than the value of almost 90% of the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

Worldwide deliveries totaled 308,600 vehicles in the fourth quarter, well ahead of the average analyst estimate of roughly 263,000 vehicles, and topping the Austin, Texas, company’s previous record of 241,300 in the third quarter. Annual handovers surged to more than 936,000 in 2021, up 87% from the previous year’s level, Tesla said Sunday.

“This is a trophy-case quarter for Tesla as the company blew away even bullcase expectations,” Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in an email. He called it a “jaw-dropper performance” for the end of the year that gives the company “massive tailwinds” heading into 2022.

The record quarter underscores the “green tidal wave taking hold” for Tesla and Chief Executive Elon Musk, Ives said in a note to clients. The results also point to robust demand in China and Tesla’s skill at navigating the global semiconductor shortage, he said.

Musk praised his crew on Twitter.

Quarterly deliveries are one of the most closely watched indicators for Tesla. They underpin its financial results and are widely seen as a barometer of consumer demand for electric vehicles because the company has led the charge for battery-powered cars.

The shares reached a record high in early November before plunging after Musk began unloading 10% of his stake.