For the fifth consecutive year Tesla ended a quarter with a loss, although more contained than estimates. Between January and March revenues rose more than expected but over the period the company burned cash at a slightly faster pace than expected by many analysts. The reaction of Wall Street is very negative: the Tesla stock loses about 7 percent (here the trend in real time).
The electric car manufacturer has also confirmed its target for a weekly production of 5,000 units of the Model 3, the sedan designed for the mass market with which the company aims to achieve its ambitious objectives.
That target, postponed several times after the start of production last July, should be achieved "in the next two months". In addition, as indicated in April with a tweet from CEO Elon Musk, Tesla expects to be profitable and with a positive cash flow in the third and fourth quarter of the current year.
"Dry" questions to the Divine Elon
However, investors did not like the fact that in the call for commentary the CEO refused to give details of the potential need for financing the company; this caused a 4.5% sell-off of the title in the after-hours on Wall Street. An analyst who had asked him about the balance sheet of the company Mush replied: "Go ahead with the next one. Boring questions from balls are not cool. " And another question about Model 3 reservations thundered: "These questions are so dry. They are killing me. "
Loss of $ 4.19 per share
In the three months to March 31, Tesla recorded a loss attributable to shareholders of $ 709.6 million, or $ 4.19 per share, against the $ 303.3 million hole, or $ 2.04 per share , in the same period of 2017. Excluding extraordinary items, the company suffered a loss of $ 3.35 per share against the $ 1.33 per share share a year earlier by beating analysts' estimates that they expected a loss of $ 3.58 per share. Revenues grew to 3.41 billion dollars from 2.70 billion in the period January-March 2017, exceeding expectations of 3.28 billion. Sales include car sales, up 19% per year to € 2.74 billion, and solar panels and batteries (+ 92% to € 410 million, above the consensus of approximately € 300 million).
Target 5 thousand units per week
The margins of the activities linked to the four wheels have improved, reaching 19.7% from 18.9% in the last three months of 2017; however, there was a sharp decline compared to 27.4% in the first quarter of last year. For the third week in a row, Tesla has maintained the production of Model 3 above 2,000 units a week. In the last of those weeks, production reached 2,270 units. Achieving the goal of 5,000 units a week should help Tesla become profitable. In the second quarter of the year the production levels of Model S and Model X should be similar to those of the quarter just ended and then accelerate considerably between July and September. Tesla cut estimates of capital expenditures "by focusing on the most important short-term needs that will benefit us in the next couple of years".
The knot of cash
Now the company expects a Capex for 2018 "slightly less than 3 billion dollars" compared to 3.4 billion in 2017. At the end of March Tesla had 2.7 billion dollars in cash. Waiting for the accounts, when they reached closed US markets, the Tesla stock had gained 0.41% to $ 301.15. In the after market it had come to earn 2% and then turn sharply down. There are those who pointed out that the group beat estimates because analysts had cut them a lot. In 2018 the group lost 3.3% on the stock exchange and in the last 12 months it left 5.5% on the ground, reaching a capitalization of 51.1 billion dollars, more than that of Ford 44 billion.
Nikola vs Tesla
A legal grain is also coming for Tesla. A start up called Nikola (not surprisingly, as the baptismal name of the great physicist and Serbian scientist Tesla) has against the house of Elon Musk Serbian a lawsuit for infringement of patents inherent in Semi electric truck. Nicola asks for 2 billion damages because he believes that the design and aerodynamic solutions of Tesla's electric truck (not yet produced) have been copied by the big commercial vehicle developed by the start-up, which aims to offer electric trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cell
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