Tesla stock posts best weekly gains since April

Tesla Inc. shares ended Friday with their best weekly gains since April, as the stock continued to receive a lift from the Silicon Valley car maker’s quarterly results and launch of Model 3 production.

Tesla TSLA, +2.83% shares rose 6.5% for the week, the stock’s best since the week ended April 7, when it rose 8.7%. The stock gained 2.8% Friday and 6.5% on Thursday, the first trading session after the company reported a narrower-than-expected second-quarter loss and larger-than-expected quarterly sales. It was the fourth consecutive positive week for Tesla stock.

The weekly gains erase some of the losses incurred last week, when the stock fell 13.4%, its worst weekly result in five months, after Tesla reported lower-than-expected second-quarter sales.

Tesla late Wednesday reported an adjusted loss of $1.33 a share, compared with $1.61 a share a year ago. Revenue reached $2.8 billion, up from $1.3 billion a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected an adjusted loss of $1.88 a share on sales of $2.52 billion.

In a call following results, Chief Executive Elon Musk told analysts there should be “zero concern” about Tesla’s achieving a production rate of 10,000 cars a week by the end of next year, in alignment with the company’s longstanding goal achieve a production rate of 500,000 by December 2018.

A week ago, the company launched the Model 3, the mass-market sedan it hopes it will be its ticket to mass-market sales of its electric cars.

Tesla shares have gained 64% in 2017, which compares with gains of 10.5% for the S&P 500 index. SPX, +0.19% The stock lost 11% last year.

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