Tesla reports Q4 results: ‘I remain positive on this name’

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) on Wednesday said its Q4 profit and sales topped Wall Street estimates. Shares slid 5.0% initially on fears of supply chain issues but recovered entirely later on.

Our factories have been running below capacity for several quarters due to supply constraints that are likely to continue in 2022. We aim to increase our production as quickly as we can, not only through ramping production at new factories, but also maximising output from established ones.

Q4 financial performance

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Tesla reported $2.3 billion in net income or $2.05 per share versus the year-ago figure of 24 cents per share. On an adjusted basis, it earned $2.54 per share in the fourth quarter. The EV maker recorded $17.7 billion in quarterly sales – a YoY growth of 65%. Tesla said:

Fremont factory achieved record production in 2021. We believe there is potential to extend overall capacity beyond 600,000 per year. We aim to maximise output from our Fremont factory while ramping new factories.

According to FactSet, experts had forecast $2.36 of adjusted EPS on $17.1 billion in sales. On CNBC’s “Closing Bell”, Canaccord’s Jed Dorsheimer said:

Tesla outperformed a lot of the other EV stocks on higher volume numbers. So, we got what we were expecting. You got a beat on the automotive gross margin ex. credits. So, it’ll probably be volatile, but I remain positive on this name.

Full-year profit and sales

For the full year, Tesla said its profit and sales were up 665% and 71%, respectively. It ended the year with $2.8 billion in FCF and $1.4 billion in debt, excluding vehicle and energy-product financing. Tesla said:

Builds of Model Ys started in late 2021 at Gigafactory Texas. After final certification of Austin-made Model Y, we plan to start deliveries to customers. We are making progress on the industrialisation of Cybertruck, which is currently planned for Austin production subsequent to Model Y.

Last month, Tesla said its vehicle deliveries were up 90% YoY in Q4.