Shares of Tesla Motors went down by -2.26% to $-4.80 per share in after-hours trading after tonight’s earnings report
Tesla released its latest earnings report after closing bell tonight, posting losses of $0.13 per share on $1.1 billion in revenue. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 33 cents per share on $1.23 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter.
In the same quarter a year ago, Tesla reported non-GAAP earnings of 33 cents per share on $615 million in revenue.
Key metrics from Tesla’s earnings report
The biggest question mark for Wall Street was deliveries. The automaker cut its full year delivery guidance for 2014 from 35,000 to 33,000 in November. Tesla Motors missed its delivery goals for 2014, having 9,834 cars in the fourth quarter versus the 11,000 it needed to meet its full-year goal. Shares of Tesla fell 2% after ending the regular session down 1.6%.
Tesla needs China and the gigafactory
Looking ahead to this year, it’s clear that management at Tesla Motors has a lot on their plate. The automaker’s sales performance in China has been so horrible that CEO Elon Musk threatened to fire all of the automaker’s top management in China. Investors will certainly be keeping an eye on whether the company is able to turn things around there and actually start selling a good number of cars.
The gigafactory is also a very important project for Tesla. The faster the company can move the construction project along, the sooner the facility will be up and running. And the sooner the gigafactory is up and running, the sooner Tesla will be equipped to try to transform itself into the mass market automobile powerhouse Elon Musk wants it to be.
