Tesla posts a full-year of profit for the 1st time — now it could join the S&P 500 Club

Elon gets his $2B bonus... For the 1st time in its 17-year history, Tesla has posted four straight profitable quarters in a row. The stock surged on the news (surprise), making Tesla the 12th biggest company in the US by market value. Despite corona-conomy slowdowns (like its Fremont factory partially shutting), Tesla hit these numbers:

• 90K = Tesla's car deliveries from April-June, down just 5% from last year. Meanwhile, car-making peers Ford and GM saw deliveries plunge over 30%.
• $6B = How much Tesla did in sales. That's actually down 4% from the same quarter last year. And yet...
• $104M = Tesla's profit, mostly thanks to environmental credit sales. Tesla's clean car production racks up green credits from regulators.
• $428M = How much Tesla made selling credits to non-electric carmakers who need to offset pollution.

And an invite to the S&P 500 Club... Maybe. The famous S&P 500 index tracks stocks of the 500 most valuable public companies in the US. To be included, companies must post four straight profitable quarters.

• Tesla just did that, so it's now worthy of the S&P's consideration (but it still needs an invite). Of course, Elon wants the S&P-status bragging right.
• But more importantly, over $11T is invested in funds that track the S&P 500. If Tesla gets in, fund managers might start buying up the stock, driving the price up even further.