Tesla shares close at highest in 13 months as post-earnings rally continues

A day after its sharpest rally since 2013, Tesla's stock on Friday closed at its highest in more than a year as investors and analysts continued to applaud the electric vehicle company's third-quarter results.

Tesla shares rose 3.4% on Friday to $269.23, its highest finish since September 2023. With the two days of gains, the stock erased its loss for the year and is now up 8.4% in 2024, still trailing the Nasdaq's 23% increase.

Analysts at Piper Sandler were the latest to bolster their price target following Wednesday's earnings report. The firm, which already had a buy rating on the stock, said it was increasing its 12-month stock price prediction to $315 from $310 "to reflect higher deliveries and higher margins."

Tesla shares on Thursday soared 22%, their second-best performance since the company's IPO in 2010. That came after Tesla reported revenue of $25.18 billion, which just missed analysts' expectations of $25.37 billion, but was up 8% compared with a year earlier. Tesla reported earnings per share of 72 cents adjusted, topping the average analyst estimate of 58 cents.

Tesla's profit margins were boosted by $739 million in revenue for environmental regulatory credits, which JPMorgan Chase analysts noted in a report were a "potentially unsustainable driver" of earnings and cash flow. Results were also boosted by $326 million in revenue from FSD, the company's Full Self-Driving Supervised system. 

CEO Elon Musk said on the earnings call that his "best guess" is that vehicle growth will reach 20% to 30% next year, citing lower-cost vehicles and the "advent of autonomy." Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting delivery growth of about 15% for 2025.

When it comes to autonomy, however, Musk has consistently missed his