Earnings Hits and Misses: AutoZone, Lordstown Motors, Zymergen

Here’s a quick look at some earnings reports that were released after markets closed on Monday or before Tuesday’s opening bell.

Lordstown Motors Corp. (NASDAQ: RIDE) reported first-quarter results after markets closed Monday and then took its punishment once trading began again on Tuesday. Analysts expected the company to post a loss per share of $0.28 for the quarter on essentially no revenue. Lordstown reported a loss per share of $0.72 and no revenue. Then the report got worse.

Production of Lordstown’s Endurance pickup will be limited and “at best be 50% of our prior expectations.” Capital spending is now forecast to total between $250 million and $275 million for the year while operating expenses are tabbed at $55 million to $60 million and R&D costs are expected to total between $280 million and $290 million. That adds up to a range of $585 million to $625 million. As of March 31, Lordstown had cash on hand of $587 million.

The company also said it will “need additional capital to execute on our plans” but did not say how much. Lordstown said it has several opportunities to raise capital “in various forms and has begun those discussions.” In general, those opportunities are issuing more stock or borrowing.

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The stock traded down about 14% to $8.32, in a 52-week range of $6.69 to $31.80. The consensus price target on the stock is $18.50, and the daily average trading volume is about 9.8 million shares. More than half that number of shares changed hands in the first half-hour of Tuesday’s regular trading session.

AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) reported earnings per share (EPS) of $26.48, some 44% better than analysts had forecast. Revenue also beat expectations, coming in 13.7% above forecast at $3.65 billion. Year-over-year revenue was higher by 31.4%. U.S. same-store sales rose by 28.9% year over year.

Shares traded up by less than 1%, at $1,451.79 in a 52-week range of $1,074.45 to $1,542.30. The consensus price target is $1,612.65.

Zymergen Inc. (NASDAQ: ZY), which came public on April 21, reported March quarter revenue of $3.7 million, a 26% jump year over year. Operating expenses increased by nearly a third to $87.1 million, and the net loss for the quarter totaled $84.6 million. As of March 31, the company reported $121 million in cash, and the April IPO raised another $530 million in net proceeds.

The biofacturing firm had not attracted enough analyst attention to be saddled with estimated earnings or revenue or trends going forward. Cathie Wood’s ARK Genomic Revolution ETF added about 1,000 shares to its holdings in Zymergen on Thursday, bringing the fund’s total holdings in the company to slightly more than 1.05 million shares, an increase of some 4,152 shares since last week.

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