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Blog Tesla Posts Profit for Second Consecutive Quarter

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Tesla said Wednesday it posted a second consecutive quarter of profit for the first time in company history, but saw a dip in profit from the previous quarter.

Tesla reported earnings of 78 cents a share for the fourth quarter, which rose to $1.93 a share after adjustments, on revenue of $7.23 billion. Wall Street was expecting revenue of about $7.014 billion for the quarter and a gain of about $2.08 per share.

Tesla Fourth Quarter & Full Year 2018 Update[/b]



Q4 operating income stable compared to Q3 at $414M, operating margin of 5.7%

Operating cash flow less capex improved from Q3 to $910M in Q4

Cash and cash equivalents of $3.7B at Q4-end, increased by $718M in Q4Q4 GAAP net income of $139M impacted by $54M non-cash charge

Model 3 GAAP and non-GAAP gross margin remained stable at >20% in Q4



The profit dip was expected since Tesla started delivering a less expensive variant of the Model 3 during the last quarter.

On Jan. 18, CEO Elon Musk said in a company blog post that shipments of higher-priced Model 3 variants to Europe and Asia in early 2019 would “hopefully allow us, with great difficulty, effort and some luck, to target a tiny profit” in the current quarter. Musk again warned investors on a call Wednesday that he is “optimistic about being profitable in Q1” but “not by a lot.”

The Tesla Energy energy business had a notable quarter. Energy storage deployments reached 225 MWh, a decrease of 6% sequentially, and up 57% compared to Q4 2017, the company said.

Tesla’s projects 2019 capital expenditure of of about $2.5 billion. Deliveries are expected to grow to “360,000 to 400,000 vehicles” this year, the company said.

See the full earnings report here.

 
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I'm not sure you know how earnings forecasts work?
Fair statement...you're right, I don't get it. Seems like a total scam to me. Set milestones then move them when the company meets them. Ensure they have ammunition to dump on the company. Total BS.

More important to me at this point is how much does it really matter. Other than the benefit to individual investors, does the company really need the stock market when they are proven to be profitable and can now fund their development in house? They have Chinese banks lined up to loan them money for Gigafactory Shanghai. Shouldn't Tesla just keep doing what they're doing and screw the markets?

Dan
 
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