Tesla overcame a seven-week pandemic-related shutdown at its California assembly plant to post a surprising $104 million net profit for the second quarter.

It was the electric car and solar panel maker’s fourth-straight profitable quarter, qualifying it to be included in the S&P 500 index of corporate titans. That decision will be made later.

Local government restrictions forced Tesla to close its only U.S. assembly factory in Fremont, California, from March 23 to May 11. Even with no production, the company paid roughly 10,000 workers for part of the shutdown and Tesla continued health care and other benefits.

The profit, compared with a $408 million loss a year ago, pushed Tesla’s shares up 5.7% to 1,682.99 in after-hours trading Wednesday.

But the company likely would have lost money without $428 million it earned from selling electric vehicle credits to other automakers so they can meet government fuel economy and pollution regulations.

Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn said he expects money from the credits to double this year over the $594 million the company made in 2019, but said Tesla is not managing its business assuming that credits will contribute significantly in the future. The company is counting on manufacturing efficiencies to increase profits, he said.

Also Wednesday, Tesla said it has picked the Austin, Texas, area as the site for its second U.S. assembly plant. Austin was the front runner, but Tulsa, Oklahoma, was a possibility.

On a conference call with analysts and investors, CEO Elon Musk said that sometime in the future, Tesla will build a compact vehicle and a higher-capacity passenger vehicle, but he didn’t give a time frame. He said Tesla is on its way to making vehicles more affordable through manufacturing and design efficiencies.

“The thing that bugs me the most about where we are right now is that our cars are not affordable enough,” he said.

Musk also said he’s confident about rolling out full self-driving technology by the end of the year and said it already works well during his drives to work. The company based in Palo Alto, California, has updated its Autopilot driver-assist software to recognize stop signs and is working on navigating intersections and city streets, he said.

Last year he predicted Tesla would get regulatory approval from a few states by the end of 2020 for autonomous vehicles to drive on roads. A ride-hailing service involving millions of Tesla autonomous vehicles now seems to be farther into the future, with Musk saying it will depend on regulators.

Critics have said Tesla doesn’t have the right sensors to fully automate driving. The National Transportation Safety Board has blamed two fatal crashes in part on Autopilot. In both crashes the system failed to spot tractor-trailers crossing in front of a Tesla. The company would use the same sensors that Autopilot uses for its self-driving system, but with vastly increased computing power. Tesla says drivers always have to pay attention while using Autopilot.

Excluding one-time items such as $347 million in stock-based compensation, Tesla made $2.18 per share. That beat Wall Street estimates of a break-even quarter, according to FactSet. Revenue was down 4.9% from a year ago to $6.04 billion. That still beat estimates of $5.15 billion.

Most of that stock compensation went to Musk, who earned a payout of around $700 million in May and on Tuesday became eligible for another $2.1 billion, all based largely on Tesla’s four-fold stock price growth this year.

But Tesla issued a note of caution in its investor letter released Wednesday after the markets closed: “It remains difficult to predict whether there will be further operational interruptions or how global consumer sentiment will evolve in the second half of 2020.”

Musk also said demand for Tesla’s vehicles isn’t a problem, but the company is facing struggles with its parts supply chain.

Morningstar analyst David Whiston said demand seems strong for Tesla’s newer offerings, the Model Y small SUV and Model 3 compact car, rather than the older and more expensive Model S large car and the Model X large SUV.

“As long as they can keep getting credit revenue and they have new offerings ramping up like the Y, they have a chance at continued profit,” he said. “Profit without the credits needs more volume though.”

Tesla said it should have enough money to fund new products and to build two new factories in the U.S. and Germany, as well as cover other expenses. The company said it would begin delivering its electric semi next year.

Tesla generated $964 million in cash from its operations from April through June, and it ended the quarter with about $9.1 billion in cash. But it also had $8.5 billion in debts, according to financial statements.

Tesla’s second-quarter profit came after it announced better-than-expected global sales during the period. The company said it delivered 90,650 vehicles from April through June as it rolled out the new Model Y SUV in the U.S. and China. That’s a 2.5% increase over the first quarter’s 88,400, but was a 4.8% drop from the second quarter of 2019.

Tesla's market top hit $100 billion on Wednesday, speeding past Volkswagen, which right now sits at $88 billion. Tesla shares flooded 16% in the week through January 23, expanding Elon Musk's total assets by $1.7 billion to $32 billion.

The 49-year-old Tesla CEO, who possesses almost 22% of the electric vehicle producer's stock, is as of now the 28th-most extravagant individual on the planet. He additionally has an expected $12.5 billion stake in SpaceX, his secretly held aviation organization known for reusable rockets.

Tesla shares have dramatically increased since October and are up over 30% this year — it's still just January. Tesla outperformed Ford and GM in advertise capitalization prior this month. The main carmaker still behind Toyota, with a market top of $233 billion.

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Tesla’s losses were mounting last summer, massive debt payments were looming, and both Wall Street and federal regulators had run out of patience with the erratic behavior of CEO Elon Musk.

One year ago this week, shares plunged 14% after Tesla posted another quarterly loss, this one for $408 million, wiping out about $6 billion of the company’s worth.

Since then the stock has blasted off like a rocket at SpaceX, another Musk-led company. The electric car and solar panel maker has successfully opened a factory in China, introduced the Model Y electric SUV, made debt payments and posted profits for three straight quarters. Musk has also toned down his inflammatory posts on Twitter that had cost him and the company $40 million in penalties from U.S. securities regulators.

Today, Tesla’s market value is three times that of Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler, combined. A single share of Tesla now goes for nearly $1,600 — a seven-fold increase from a year ago — making it one of the most expensive publicly traded shares in the world.

“Things just turned on a dime,” said Garrett Nelson, an analyst at CFRA who specializes in the automotive industry. “It’s just been one positive announcement after another.”

The dizzying performance on Tuesday qualified Musk for his second huge payday in less than three months, this one worth more than $2 billion. His net worth has soared to an estimated $72 billion, just behind Warren Buffett on the Forbes Billionaires list after passing the famed investor earlier this month. In total, Musk and other Tesla shareholders have made about $240 billion since March 18 when the stock stood at $361 — its low point for this year.

With second-quarter sales of Tesla vehicles outpacing the first despite a global pandemic, shares could jump again if Tesla surprises on Wednesday with a fourth consecutive profitable quarter. That could lead to Tesla’s admission into the club of corporate giants: the S&P 500 stock index.

But analysts have begun to question if the shares are running too hot. Analysts polled by FactSet expect a $228 million net loss from April through June. Only one analyst has a 12-month stock price target above the current value. A message was left Tuesday seeking comment from Tesla.

Nelson says shares have outpaced Tesla’s fundamental performance, and he’s telling clients to sell. He placed a price target at about two-thirds the current value of shares.

In an interview, Nelson said April-to-June registrations of Tesla vehicles fell by nearly half in California, the company’s biggest U.S. market. That’s an indication of waning demand for its vehicles, which start at $37,990 for a base Model 3 but the car can easily hit $60,000 with options.

Tesla also cut the price of its long-range Model Y by $3,000, which Nelson sees as a red flag. And the company is about to engage in a bout of heavy spending with new factories going up in Germany and the U.S.

There are also market factors that have flung share prices far higher, Nelson said.

Short sellers who perceived flaws at Tesla have since been buying shares to cover massive losses as the stock price leaped, Nelson said. Short-sellers now account for only 7.5% of Tesla’s outstanding stock, down from over 23% a year ago, he said.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas has a $740 price target on Tesla, arguing that the market overestimates the company’s share of future electric vehicle and connected car revenue.

Investors are treating Tesla like tech stocks Apple and Amazon, which took off years ago after hitting $300 billion in market value, Jonas wrote in an investor note. Tesla hit that mark last week, but its revenue and pretax earnings are far smaller than either tech company when they reached the $300 billion valuation, he wrote.

Those who buy Tesla at around $1,500 per share have to believe that long-term U.S.-China trade relations will remain stable, older automakers will fail to make competitive electric vehicles, and big tech companies such as Google, Amazon and Apple won’t be successful in developing electric vehicle systems, he wrote.

Jonas, who is uneasy about deteriorating relations between the world’s two biggest economies, says traditional automakers are ready to spend over $400 billion on electric vehicles in the next five years, and he expects tech companies to enter the transportation business.

In the meantime, Musk is sitting pretty. The run-up in Tesla’s stock positioned him for a big payday after the Palo Alto, California, company awarded him a stock package worth more than $700 million in May.

That compensation is part of an incentive-laden deal that Tesla’s board worked out two years ago to inspire Musk to build a company that eventually generates $175 billion in revenue, and is valued at $650 billion.

Musk cleared another hurdle Tuesday when Tesla’s market value averaged $150 billion for a six-month stretch, according to data compiled by FactSet Research. Hitting that threshold means Musk is in line to receive 1.69 million stock options valued at $350.02, or nearly 80% below Tuesday’s closing price of $1,568.36.

The huge gap would make those stock options worth $2.06 billion on paper, although Musk can’t sell the shares for at least five years.