Tesla’s finances gained a boost when the company produced its promised third-quarter profit, fueling a surge in its share price and spurring interest among its top shareholders to provide or to consider further investment in the Silicon Valley-based electric car company.

One of those shareholders is its billionaire CEO Elon Musk, who teamed up with his employees to prove doubters wrong on Oct. 24 when Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) reported its first profit in two years and only its third in the company’s 15-year history, after aggressively ramping up production of its Model 3 cars. Tesla’s finances are far from settled but its $312 million in Q3 net income, based on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), sparkled compared to a loss of $717.5 million in Q3 last year and $619.4 million in Q2 this year.

Tesla officials described the third quarter as “historic” with its Model 3 becoming the best-selling car in America when measured in revenues and fifth based on the number of units sold. With average weekly Model 3 production through the third quarter, excluding planned shutdowns, of roughly 4,300 units per week, Tesla met its internal cost efficiency targets to reach a Model 3 gross margin of more than 20 percent, based on GAAP, topping the company’s previous guidance.

Plus, Tesla’s finances gained an extra boost as its total cash rose by $731 million to produce free cash flow of $881 million, despite less than 10 percent of that amount coming from working capital items such as payables, receivables and inventory. Free cash flow gains reflect Tesla’s operating cash flow, after subtracting its capital expenditures.

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Paul Dykewicz, www.pauldykewicz.com, is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, the Journal of Commerce, Seeking Alpha, GuruFocus and other publications and websites. Paul is the editor of StockInvestor.com and DividendInvestor.com, a writer for both websites and a columnist. He further is the editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C., where he edits monthly investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts, free e-letters and other investment reports. Paul previously served as business editor of Baltimore’s Daily Record newspaper. Paul also is the author of an inspirational book, “Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a foreword by former national championship-winning football coach Lou Holtz.