Tesla Reports Fourth Straight Quarter Of Profits In Blockbuster Year
FREMONT (CBS SF/AP) -- Bay Area-based Tesla Inc. and CEO Elon Musk continued their winning streak Wednesday, reporting second-quarter net income of $104 million to mark the first time the company has reported four consecutive profitable quarters.
Tesla overcame a seven-week pandemic-related shutdown at its U.S. assembly plant to post the surprising net profit.
The fourth quarter of continued profits make Tesla eligible to be added to the S&P 500. A decision on that will be made at a later date.
Local government restrictions forced the electric car and solar panel maker to close its only U.S. assembly factory in Fremont, California, from March 23 to May 11. The company paid roughly 10,000 workers for part of the shutdown and continued health care and other benefits.
While Tesla's deliveries of vehicles dropped 5 percent in the quarter when compared to last year, it was a far lower percentage than other automakers have reported, some of which plummeted as much as 30 percent.
Excluding one-time items such as $347 million in stock-based compensation, Tesla made $2.18 cents per share. That beat Wall Street estimates of a break-even quarter, according to FactSet. Revenue was down 4.9% from a year ago to $6.04 billion for the quarter. That still beat estimates of $5.15 billion.
The company said its progress in the first half of the year has positioned it for success in the second half as production output continues to improve. Telsa also said it has picked a site for its second U.S. assembly plant, announcing that the site for its largest auto assembly plant employing at least 5,000 workers would be in the Austin area.
The company will build on a 2,100-acre tract in Travis County and will get more than $60 million in tax breaks from the county and a local school district.
The new factory will build Tesla's upcoming Cybertruck pickup. It also will be a second U.S. factory for the Model Y small SUV.
The surprising profit, compared with a $408 million loss a year ago, pushed Tesla's shares up 5.1% to $1,674.09 in after-hours trading.
Tesla would have lost money, though, without $428 million it earned from selling electric vehicle credits to other automakers so they can meet government fuel economy and pollution regulations.
The company said its profit increased over the first quarter's tiny $16 million because of "fundamental operational improvements."
But it issued a note of caution in its investor letter released Wednesday after the markets closed: "It remains difficult to predict whether there will be further operational interruptions or how global consumer sentiment will evolve in the second half of 2020."
Prior to the announcement, Tesla stock has had a 279 percent rise in value year to date. But it has been Musk who has repeatedly captured the headlines whether it be his Space X program's successful launch to the Space Station, his battle to reopen his Fremont assembly plant in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, launching an apparel line of short shorts, endorsing Kanye West's run for the White House or naming his son -- X AE A-Xii.
Musk's earnings calls have become must listening for Wall Street analysts and Wednesday's was no exception.
One year ago this week, shares plunged 14 percent after Tesla posted another quarterly loss, this one for $408 million, wiping out about $6 billion of the company's worth.
Since then the stock has blasted off like a SpaceX rocket. The electric car and solar panel maker has successfully opened a factory in China, introduced the Model Y electric SUV, made debt payments and posted profits for three straight quarters.
Musk has also toned down his inflammatory posts on Twitter that had cost him and the company $40 million in penalties from U.S. securities regulators.
"Things just turned on a dime," said Garrett Nelson, an analyst at CFRA who specializes in the automotive industry. "It's just been one positive announcement after another."
The dizzying performance on Tuesday qualified Musk for his second huge payday in less than three months, this one worth more than $2 billion. His net worth has soared to an estimated $72 billion, just behind Warren Buffett on the Forbes Billionaires list after passing the famed investor earlier this month. In total, Musk and other Tesla shareholders have made about $240 billion since March 18 when the stock stood at $361 — its low point for this year.
Analysts have begun to question if the shares are running too hot. Analysts polled by FactSet expect a $228 million net loss from April through June. Only one analyst has a 12-month stock price target above the current value. A message was left Tuesday seeking comment from Tesla.
Nelson says shares have outpaced Tesla's fundamental performance, and he's telling clients to sell. He placed a price target at about two-thirds the current value of shares.
In an interview, Nelson said April-to-June registrations of Tesla vehicles fell by nearly half in California, the company's biggest U.S. market. That's an indication of waning demand for its vehicles, which start at $37,990 for a base Model 3 but the car can easily hit $60,000 with options.
Tesla also cut the price of its long-range Model Y by $3,000, which Nelson sees as a red flag. And the company is about to engage in a bout of heavy spending with new factories going up in Germany and the U.S.
There are also market factors that have flung share prices far higher, Nelson said.
Short sellers who perceived flaws at Tesla have since been buying shares to cover massive losses as the stock price leaped, Nelson said. Short-sellers now account for only 7.5% of Tesla's outstanding stock, down from over 23% a year ago, he said.
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas has a $740 price target on Tesla, arguing that the market overestimates the company's share of future electric vehicle and connected car revenue.
Investors are treating Tesla like tech stocks Apple and Amazon, which took off years ago after hitting $300 billion in market value, Jonas wrote in an investor note. Tesla hit that mark last week, but its revenue and pretax earnings are far smaller than either tech company when they reached the $300 billion valuation, he wrote.
Those who buy Tesla at around $1,500 per share have to believe that long-term U.S.-China trade relations will remain stable, older automakers will fail to make competitive electric vehicles, and big tech companies such as Google, Amazon and Apple won't be successful in developing electric vehicle systems, he wrote.
Jonas, who is uneasy about deteriorating relations between the world's two biggest economies, says traditional automakers are ready to spend over $400 billion on electric vehicles in the next five years, and he expects tech companies to enter the transportation business.
In the meantime, Musk is sitting pretty. The run-up in Tesla's stock positioned him for a big payday after the Palo Alto, California, company awarded him a stock package worth more than $700 million in May.
That compensation is part of an incentive-laden deal that Tesla's board worked out two years ago to inspire Musk to build a company that eventually generates $175 billion in revenue, and is valued at $650 billion.
Musk cleared another hurdle Tuesday when Tesla's market value averaged $150 billion for a six-month stretch, according to data compiled by FactSet Research. Hitting that threshold means Musk is in line to receive 1.69 million stock options valued at $350.02, or nearly 80% below Tuesday's closing price of $1,568.36.
The huge gap would make those stock options worth $2.06 billion on paper, although Musk can't sell the shares for at least five years.