Cars and Drivers

Tesla Keeps Growing Deliveries and Revenues

Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) has reported is set to report earnings after the close of trading on Thursday. Net income was $16 million, or $0.11 in earnings per share on an adjusted operating basis. Revenue was up by 55% from a year ago to $858 million.

Thomson Reuters has consensus estimates of $0.04 in operating earnings per share (down from $0.20 a year ago) but on a revenue gain of close to 47% to $810.6 million. WhisperNumber.com had sent us a pre-earnings ‘whisper number’ estimate of $0.03 per share, covered in our full earnings preview.

Tesla said that it had a record second quarter of Model S deliveries of 7,579 vehicles and record second quarter production 8,763 vehicles. Here is how that compares to last quarter sequentially – Tesla delivered 6,457 Model S cars in the first quarter of 2014 and it guided with the last earnings report that the second quarter deliveries would come to 7,500 for the second quarter.

Tesla is now forecasting that it will deliver some 9,000 vehicles during the third quarter of 2014. This take into account a 2-week plant shutdown. The company claims that it would have been able to deliver about 11,000 cars had it not been for that shutdown. Elon Musk also said that Tesla is on track for more than 35,000 deliveries in 2014.

The guidance shows that Tesla expects to be marginally profitable in Q3 on a non-GAAP basis. Elon Musk further said,

“We expect non-GAAP automotive gross margin in Q3 to be about consistent with the prior quarter. As manufacturing efficiencies and part costs continue to improve, we continue to anticipate a 28% non-GAAP automotive gross margin, excluding ZEV credits, by Q4 of this year. We expect to lease about 300 cars in North America during Q3, and much more in Q4.”

Tesla shares closed down by 2.5% at $223.60 along with a very weak stock market. The stock was seen t $222.50 or so in the immediate after-hours reaction. Its 52-week range is $116.10 to $265.00, its consensus analyst price target is almost $225, and the highest analyst price target is all the way up at $325.

We would again remind readers that Tesla’s market cap is still almost $28 billion.

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