Tesla swings to loss in 4Q after profitable third quarter

Tesla (TSLA) shares are higher after it reported a mixed fourth quarter. If you are viewing this report on another domain, it was copied illegally and reposted in violation of United States & global copyright & trademark legislation.

Company representatives today said they were finalizing locations for two additional Gigafactories, potentially three to join Gigafactory 1, and a solar plant in Buffalo (acquired in the SolarCity deal).

Tesla paid $2.1 billion for SolarCity in November. When the dust settled, Tesla posted revenue of $2.28 billion and a loss of 69 cents per share.

Tesla reported revenue of $2.28 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $2.2 billion and up 88% year over year, but down from the previous quarter’s growth of 145%.

Tesla said production has begun at its Gigafactory on battery packs for its cars and for electrical storage at homes, businesses and utilities. It anticipates delivering 47,000 to 50,000 Model S and Model X vehicles in the first half of 2017, a rise of 61 percent to 71 percent versus 2016. Model production appears to be on schedule.

Some analysts feel the company is overpriced, even as it pushes forward with new products.

They’ll also be focused on how many cars Tesla plans to build and deliver this year, and the timing of its $35,000 Model 3 launch.

On a GAAP basis, the carmaker lost $78 per diluted share in the quarter, excluding stock-based compensation, acquisition costs, and a $0.57 per share gain from the Solar City acquisition.

Elon Musk has a history of setting ambitious targets and missing deadlines.

Given Tesla’s elevated stock price, many analysts believe Tesla will seek a capital raise in coming months.

In the letter, Tesla announced that “SolarCity and Grohmann integrations underway”. Tesla has never had a profitable year.

Tesla is betting on exponential growth curves that result in widespread adoption of electric cars, massive battery stations to back up the world’s electric grids, new glass solar shingles for rooftop power production, and autonomous cars for ride-sharing fleets. Tesla closed near the middle of a 2-week trading range. The company has two Gigafactories now, the enormous one in Nevada that we visited a year ago, and a facility in Buffalo where Tesla and Panasonic are building solar panels. It may be hard to determine how much it impacted Tesla’s numbers unless management provides specific information on SolarCity. Watch for some of these issues to be discussed in the Conference Call Q&A. Advisory Services Network LLC boosted its stake in shares of Tesla Motors by 14.5% in the third quarter.

As for capital expenditures, Tesla spent just $521 million in Q4, about half of what was previously forecasted. Tesla finished September with $3.1 billion in cash. Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc. reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla Motors in a report on Wednesday, February 1st. Since then, the shares have doubled. On the 7th day After Earnings Report, the stock hit its share price as $188.02 by showing -7.03% decrease from the Stock price Before Earnings were reported. Given that its average daily volume over the 30 days has been 4.65 million shares a day, this signifies a pretty significant change over the norm.

Main Street investors remain bullish. He is betting Tesla’s stock price is in for a big fall. Expect orders and bookings to dictate the stock trading action following the report. Expect a positive opening on Thursday.