NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Tesla Motors Inc. soared before Thursday's opening bell, after the electric car maker posted its first quarterly net profit since it was founded a decade ago.
Excluding one-time items, the company posted an adjusted profit of $15 million, or 12 cents per share. Revenue rose to $561.8 million in the first quarter of 2013 from $30.2 million last year.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected loss of a penny per share on revenue of $500.2 million.
Tesla also beat its targets for delivery and production of the Model S electric car, its only vehicle now on sale. The company delivered 4,900 cars during the first quarter, beating its guidance of 4,500. It also said it produced 400 or more cars per week, or over 5,000 during the quarter.
On Wednesday, Tesla increased its guidance for worldwide deliveries to 21,000, about 1,000 more than its previous target. It expects to deliver just over 4,500 cars, all in North America, during the second quarter. Although Tesla expects to build 5,000 cars in the second quarter, some of them will be en route to Europe, so revenue won't be booked until the third quarter.
Jefferies analyst Elaine Kwei, who backed her "Buy" rating and boosted her price target for the stock by $2 to $70, said that the first-quarter results showed significant progress on costs and pointed to the increased production guidance.
"As sales and service networks are becoming more established, we expect consumer awareness of the brand to grow, and word of mouth to increase as more cars hit the road," Kwei wrote in a note to investors.
Also on Thursday, Tesla announced that the Model S received the highest score in Consumer Reports' ratings: a 99 out of 100. The last vehicle to receive a 99 in the magazine's testing was the Lexus LS 460L in 2007, Tesla said.
Tesla, which was founded in 2003 and went public in 2011, previously had not turned a profit. But Musk has said Tesla expects to be profitable this year thanks to growing sales of the Model S.
Tesla shares rose $10.91, or 20 percent, to $66.70 about two hours ahead of the market opening.
