Tesla’s CFO Deepak Ahuja retires, shares tumble

Tesla posted its second consecutive quarterly profit on Wednesday, but missed Wall Street’s expectations — sending its stock lower on concerns about bumps in the road ahead.

Shares tumbled in late trading, down 4.8 percent, after rising 3.8 percent, to close at $308.77.

The electric-car company’s mercurial Chief Executive Elon Musk announced the mixed results on a conference call while fielding concerns about whether Tesla can deliver profits while selling its lower-priced Model 3 vehicle.

Musk predicted that 2019 would be “an amazing year for Tesla,” and that the days of Tesla reporting losses are in the rear-view mirror. “I’m optimistic about being profitable in Q1 and all quarters going forward,” Musk said. “Not by a lot, but I’m optimistic.”

That optimism comes as Tesla acknowledges that its sales could suffer from a pending reduction of the federal electric vehicle tax credit, which was just halved from $7,500 in January, and will be reduced to $1,875 in July before disappearing in 2020.

The Palo Alto, Calif., car maker reported fourth-quarter earnings per share of $1.93 on an adjusted basis, below Wall Street’s forecast for $2.20 a share. Its $7.2 billion in revenue beat analysts’ $7.1 billion estimate.

Tesla also made a surprise announcement at the end of its earnings call that long-serving Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja is retiring.

Musk said Ahuja will stay on as an adviser. He will be replaced by Zach Kirkhorn, the vice president of finance.