Tesla has been on a tear for the last couple of quarters which has made it the world's most valuable art company. Now in the Q3 earning report many expected another impressive quarter but Tesla completely crushed it with $800 million in profits on $8.7 billion in revenue and a gain of $0.76 per share.
"The third quarter of 2020 was a record quarter on many levels. Over the past four quarters, we generated over $1.9B of free cash flow while spending $2.4B on new production capacity, service centres, Supercharging locations and other capital investments. While we took additional SBC expense in Q3, our GAAP operating margin reached 9.2%," Tesla said in its shareholder letter.
Importantly for Tesla, this means it has even more cash on hand. It has $14.5 billion in cash and now its operating margin has reached 6.3 per cent which is an improvement over last year. Tesla expects its margins to improve - so much so that it may hit an industry-leading peak.
With increasing competition in the EV space, Musk has also ramped up profitability
"For the trailing 12 months, we achieved an operating margin of 6.3%. We expect our operating margin will continue to grow over time, ultimately reaching industry-leading levels with capacity expansion and localization plans underway," the company elaborated.
This news comes at a time when Tesla has announced plans to introduce tabless batteries which will make its vehicles more efficient and affordable. It also comes at a time when the company is pulling back on many initiatives like warranties and return policies which initially lured many customers.
