Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Finance

Charging up ahead of Tesla earnings – Q3 profit target to go?

Embed from Getty Images

Production has improved, but can Te..

Embed from Getty Images

Production has improved, but can Tesla manage to stick to its guidance to return to profitability in Q3?

Again we are looking at whether the company has borrowed from Peter to pay Paul by taking on additional costs in order to hit delivery targets. We also note reports that Tesla employees were pressured to take shortcuts to achieve the production targets.

Last month CEO Elon Musk said deliveries in the second
quarter hit a record 95,200 cars, well ahead of the 91k expected by Wall
Street. It was 50% ahead of the anaemic growth seen in Q1 and beat the previous
quarterly best of 90,700 set in the final quarter of 2018.

Weak first quarter

Q1 earnings were a bit of a car crash. The firm reported a net loss of $702m, equivalent to $2.90 per share – well south of the $0.69 consensus expected. Revenues were also a miss – coming in at $4.54bn against the $5.2bn expected. The company does not expect to return to profitability until Q3, but even this could be a stretch. We should expect management to have greater visibility now and if they stick to the Q3 target it would be a positive for the stock.

Net cash fell to $2.2bn, down $1.5bn from the end of 2018, largely down to the repayment of a $920m convertible bond. The effect of the cut to federal tax credits paid to buyers of its vehicles on Jan 1st has had a clear impact. Sales revenues were down 41% from the fourth quarter. This trend is unlikely to have improved much in Q2.

Price instability

Going forward, we noted three months ago that the erratic
pricing policy of the Model 3 is a worry – can Tesla make it at a price that is
acceptable to consumers but is still profitable? Last week we heard that Tesla
had once again rejigged its pricing and options across the entire range.

After Q1, Tesla reaffirmed prior guidance of 360,000 to 400,000 vehicle deliveries in 2019, representing an increase of approximately 45% to 65% compared to 2018. However as previously noted, at the lower end it would be flat oRead More

Finance

In an interview with ET Now, Dabur India Director Mohit Burm..

Science

The 147th Open championship will be at Carnoustie Golf Club in Scotland. Jan Kruger/R&A Golfers ..

Tech

Enlarge Oliver Morris/Getty Images) In response to an Ars re..

Tech

Enlarge/ You wouldn't really want to use Nvidia's ..