Prime electric car maker Tesla Motors (TSLA) announced Q3 results after the bell Tuesday, missing on both the top and bottom lines in the quarter. However, shares of Tesla stock are popping higher in the after-market, up 8.4 percent following the release of its quarterly letter to shareholders.
Non-GAAP revenue of $1.24 billion marks a 33 percent increase year over year, and GAAP revenue reached $937 million in Q3. Loss per share (accounting for stock-based compensation and other before non-recurring items [BNRI]) hit -$1.01, also worse than the Zacks consensus estimate of -71 cents per share. Tesla has now posted a significant earnings miss in 3 of its last 5 quarters.
However, the Tesla story is much more about deliveries of new automobiles, and on this score Tesla did not disappoint. After pre-announcing a better-than-expected 11.58K deliveries last month, the company now expects Q4 deliveries of between 17-19K. This would put Tesla ahead of its goal of 50K deliveries for fiscal 2015.
Also, the unveiling of Tesla's new, more affordable Model 3 car in March of 2016, helping foment anticipation and firm up the automaker's schedule. CEO Elon Musk also said that the company exceeded expected production of its Model X crossover despite a one-week factory shut-down to increase capacity. Accelerated investment in Tesla's Gigafactory has the company expecting to spend $500 million in Q4.
Tesla has suffered through its first tough trading year, down nearly 14 percent yerar over year prior to the after-market bounce today. This includes a 15.8 percent collapse over the past month. Questions about production — always a heavy-lifting issue for a still-young automaker — led investors to sell-off shares of Tesla of late; we'll see if its forward-looking improvements, as well as its upcoming conference call where Musk will no doubt offer up a choice presentation, will help Tesla remain buoyed this far above $200 per share.
Elsewhere, daily deals firm Groupon (GRPN) posted a positive surprise after the bell, posting 2 cents earnings per share from what was expected to be a quarterly loss of 4 cents per share (again, accounting for stock-based compensation and other BNRI). Revenues of $714 million was light of the $730 million expected. Groupon trading has been halted in the after-market, however, following the further announcement that co-founder Eric Lefkofsky is being replaced as CEO by Rich Williams, effective immediately.
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