Tesla's quarterly revenue beats estimates

Electric-car maker Tesla Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and backed its delivery guidance for the second half of the year.

Shares of the company, which said it was averaging over 1,800 net reservations per day for its mass-market Model 3 since the handover of the launch vehicles last week, rose as much as 5 percent to $342.1 in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

Tesla, which had faced production issues, maintained its delivery guidance of 50,000 vehicles for the second half of the year.

Chief Executive Elon Musk said last week that the company would go through at least "six months of manufacturing hell."

The company said it had over $3 billion in cash and cash-equivalents as of June 30, compared with $4 billion at the end of the previous quarter and $3.25 billion from a year earlier.

Automotive gross margin, which excludes the sale of zero emission vehicle (ZEV) credits, rose to 25 percent from 23.6 percent a year earlier.

The company said it expects positive Model 3 gross margins in the fourth quarter.

Revenue rose to $2.79 billion from $1.27 billion, beating analysts' average estimate of $2.51 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Excluding items, the company lost $1.33 per share, smaller than the analysts' expectations of a loss of $1.82.

The company's net loss attributable to shareholders widened to $336.4 million in the second quarter ended June 30, from $293.2 million a year earlier. http://bit.ly/2uXmTL2

On a per share basis, net loss attributable to shareholders narrowed to $2.04 from $2.09.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)