shares of nikola corp nkla surged 107 toward a more than threemonth high in morning trading thursday after the electric vehicle maker reported a thirdquarter loss than widened from a year ago but was narrower than analysts were expecting that helped offset the disclosure that it has reserved a 125 million loss as its best estimate of a civil penalty related to a securities and exchange commission investigation into securities fraud by founder and former executive chairman trevor milton the net loss was 2676 million or 68 cents a share after a loss of 797 million or 31 cents a share in the yearago period excluding nonrecurring items the adjusted pershare loss of 22 cents beat the factset loss consensus of 25 cents the company recorded no revenue in the latest quarter or in the yearago quarter the company said for the fourth quarter it expects to deliver preseries nikola tre battery electric vehicles for use on public roads hauling customer freight the stock on track for the highest close since july 28 has climbed 328 over the past three months but lost 78 year to date while the sp 500 spx has advanced 245 this year