Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) released its fourth quarter earnings report after the markets closed on Wednesday. The all-electric vehicle maker posted a net loss at -$0.87 per share on $1.75 billion in revenue. This is compared to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters that called for $0.08 in earnings per share (EPS) on $1.79 billion in revenue. The same period from the previous year had a net loss of $0.13 per share on $1.10 billion in revenue.
If you just looked at the numbers on earnings it may be a serious concern. There is some excitement about expected deliveries and demand here, which is looking forward rather than backwards.
The company delivered 17,478 vehicles in the fourth quarter, including 206 Model X vehicles. Tesla directly leased 881 cars to customers, roughly the same percentage as last quarter and worth $85 million of aggregate transaction value. As expected, Model S average transaction price declined by about 2% due to vehicle and option mix. Price increases outside the U.S. offset the impact of unfavorable movements in foreign currencies during the quarter.
In terms of guidance, Tesla plans to deliver 80,000 to 90,000 new Model S and Model X vehicles in 2016, representing accelerating growth over 2015 at the midpoint of the range. The company expects its average vehicle transaction price to increase slightly during 2016, as Model X grows to become a larger share of deliveries throughout the year. In the first quarter, Tesla plans to grow deliveries 60% year over year to roughly 16,000 vehicles, and it plans to directly lease about the same percentage of cars as it did in the fourth quarter.
Elon Musk, Chairman and CEO of Tesla, commented on earnings:
In 2015, we significantly expanded Tesla’s product breadth and operational scale. We introduced new variants of Model S, launched Model X, introduced our groundbreaking Autopilot functionality on both vehicles, and started our complementary energy storage business. To accommodate growing demand for these products, we added production capacity at five locations and expanded our network of stores, service centers and Superchargers globally. Our customers are now driving over 107,000 Tesla vehicles in 42 countries, and have traveled nearly 2 billion miles. Tesla Autopilot is learning at the rate of over a million real-world miles per day.
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On the books, cash and cash equivalents totaled $1.2 billion at the end of the fourth quarter.
Shares of Tesla closed Wednesday down 3.1% at $143.67, with a consensus analyst price target of $269.67 and a 52-week trading range of $141.05 to $286.65. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was up 5.3% at $151.27 in the after-hours trading session.
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