Tesla Earnings: Stock Drops; Report Falls Short; EV Maker Warns of ...
Tesla Stock Falls After Earnings Miss
Tesla stock was falling after the EV maker’s earnings missed expectations.
Tesla, on Wednesday evening, reported fourth-quarter earnings of 71 cents a share, below Street estimates for 73 cents, on sales of $25.2 billion, missing forecasts for $25.6 billion.
Shares are lower on the miss, but not as low as they had been. After falling as much as 5%, Tesla stock was down 3.3% in after-hours.
Automotive gross profit margins, excluding regulatory credit sales, came in a 17.1%, up from 16.3% reported in the third quarter and a little better than the 16.7% Wall Street was modeling. That’s a positive. But Tesla said in its news release that “our vehicle volume growth rate may be notably lower than the growth rate achieved in 2023.”
Tesla grew sales volumes by about 38% in 2023. Wall Street is currently projecting about 20% for 2024.
Free cash flow for the fourth quarter came in at $2.1 billion, better than the $1.4 billion Wall Street had been projecting. For the full year, Tesla generated $4.4 billion, better than the $4 billion analysts had forecast, but down from $7.6 billion generated in 2022.
