CNBC’s Jim Cramer is praising Tesla and CEO Elon Musk after their strong quarterly results, saying the company’s rise resembles some of the tech industry’s biggest success stories.
Cramer said Thursday on “Squawk Box” that Musk should be dancing in celebration after a fourth quarter of better-than-expected earnings and revenue and a rosier outlook for more than 500,000 electric vehicle deliveries this year.
“It’s like when Netflix turned and when Amazon turned,” Cramer said. Musk is the “real deal,” and “that was a magnificent quarter, truly magnificent,” he added.
Shares of Tesla rose more than 11% Thursday to an all-time high, continuing a rapid ascent that has seen the stock nearly triple since the start of September to over $645.
Later on “Squawk on the Street,” Cramer said, “If you loved the car, then you ended up, like Netflix, loving the stock, which made you money. If you loved the car, like Amazon, you made money.”
“So it’s in the orb of Amazon and it’s in the orb of Netflix,” the “Mad Money” host added.
Earlier in the week, Cramer had warned investors that Tesla shares could drop significantly if the company were to miss estimates with earnings. That, of course, did not happen.
Cramer said last week he viewed 2020 as Tesla’s breakout year, saying growing demand around the world should allow the new automaker to leave legacy car companies behind.
“Ford and GM are in the commodity auto business; stop comparing their market capitalizations to Tesla, which is a thousand times more proprietary. Instead, I think it makes more sense to think of them as a tech company,” Cramer said at the time on “Mad Money.”
The combined market cap of General Motors and Ford is $33 billion, versus Tesla’s $115 billion value.
In the past, Cramer had not been shy about speaking out about Musk and Tesla. He has praised Musk by calling him a modern day “P.T. Barnum” and criticized the CEO for missteps such as his “funding secured” tweet about taking Tesla private.
However, in late November, Cramer began to turn more positive toward the company, due largely to the wishes of his wife, Lisa, who wanted a Model X sport utility vehicle.
“I give up. The car is too damn great,” Cramer said then, while adding, “I have to admit it’s just an unbelievable experience.”
In December, Cramer declared that he had gone from an “agnostic skeptic” to an “outright bull” on Tesla’s stock, which is among the most polarizing on Wall Street.
— CNBC’s Kevin Stankiewicz contributed to this report.
