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Tesla Reports Second-Consecutive Profit; CFO Retires Again
Rei writes: Yesterday, Tesla reported their 4th quarter earnings, representing their second consecutive profit. While earnings per share missed analyst expectations ($1.93 vs. $2.20), revenue beat expectations by around $100 million and free cash flow ($910 million) was more than double the First Call consensus of $395 million. Model 3 margins were maintained at an impressive 20% level despite significant reductions in the average sale price in Q4; labor hours fell by 20% in Q4 and 65% in the second half of 2018 alone. With $3.7 billion in the bank, Tesla is now well positioned to repay its $920 million March convertible bond obligations in cash. Severance costs and an increase in inventory in transit due to shipments to Europe and China are expected to hurt Tesla's profits in Q1, but guidance for Q2 onward in 2019 is strong. Highlights planned for 2019 include introduction of faster V3 Supercharging early in the year, Model Y and pickup unveiling in the middle of the year, base Model 3 unveiling in the middle of the year, and full-vehicle production in the under-construction Shanghai Gigafactory by the end of the year -- the first wholly foreign-owned auto plant in China, which has seen extensive governmental support.
Despite a generally positive earnings report and conference call, the atmosphere was soured by the news that Tesla's 11-year Tesla veteran CFO Deepak Ahuja was re-retiring. Having previously retired in 2015, Deepak returned to Tesla in 2017 to replace outgoing CFO Jason Wheeler. Ahuja will remain with the company for several months as CFO and then become a senior advisor, while his protege Zach Kirkhorn fills his role. The market reacted negatively to the news, with Tesla trading down 4.5% premarket.
Despite a generally positive earnings report and conference call, the atmosphere was soured by the news that Tesla's 11-year Tesla veteran CFO Deepak Ahuja was re-retiring. Having previously retired in 2015, Deepak returned to Tesla in 2017 to replace outgoing CFO Jason Wheeler. Ahuja will remain with the company for several months as CFO and then become a senior advisor, while his protege Zach Kirkhorn fills his role. The market reacted negatively to the news, with Tesla trading down 4.5% premarket.
Checked the REI track definitely an Tesla fan big time but even a broken clock can be right twice a day. The Tesla short was all about buying Tesla on the cheap after financially crushing the company, a nasty plot schemed up by a car company and hedge fund managers, it failed and people should have been prosecuted including at the SEC because what they did to back the shorters against company investors, umm.
Yet still cars will be the smaller part of Tesla revenue versus power systems. Suburban distributed power system, solar and battery, with Tesla buying the sparkage after selling the kit and then onselling that sparkage to major buyers at far better rate than the power grid incumbents who are always pretty shite and way to greedy, well the corruptly privatised ones who are typically very bad.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Their earnings report says they plan to begin tooling for the Model Y this year, and 70% of its parts will be in common with the Model 3, which should lead to a quicker ramp-up than the Model 3 had. They're also still claiming to be working on the Semi, and are going to seriously ramp up solar roof production this year.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.