Tesla’s Weak Q3 Deliveries: An Earnings Warning?

Tesla (TSLA:US) missed market estimates for third-quarter deliveries due to planned upgrades at its factories, which resulted in production halts. 

The company delivered 435,059 vehicles in the three months ending September 30, down nearly 7% from the preceding quarter. Analysts had estimated deliveries of 459,949 vehicles. 

“A sequential decline in volumes was caused by planned downtimes for factory upgrades, as discussed on the most recent earnings call,” the EV company said.

However, Tesla retained its target to deliver 1.8 million vehicles this year. 

Following the news of the delivery miss, Tesla's stock initially dropped nearly 4% but later recovered to finish Monday’s trading session 0.6% in the green. Still, shares were seen trading lower on Tuesday. 

The deliveries miss comes as Tesla has been cutting prices aggressively to counter the effect of a slowing EV market and competition from upstarts and legacy players.

“We lower our Q3 revenue expectations slightly, to $23.0bn (down from $23.3bn), and our gross margin (ex-credit) is taken down slightly by 20 bps, now to 16.8% (from 17.0% prior). All in, this leads to EPS of $0.68 vs. $0.71 prior for the quarter,” Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in a note.

“For the year, we continue to expect Tesla to meet its 1.8m deliveries target, suggesting sequentially improving production run-rate as well as deliveries, likely with better cost efficiencies attached and higher margins in Q4 vs. Q3.”

Several Congress members reported trades involving TSLA shares in recent months, including Rep. Ro Khanna’s purchase of shares valued at between $15,000 and $50,000 in June.