Tesla Q3 23 Balance Sheet: Revenues Below Expectations - Price War Weighs - Share Price Falls
Austin, USA - Tesla has published its figures for the third quarter of 2023 (Q3 2023). Revenues have increased compared to the same quarter last year Q3 2022, but are lower than expected. Profit is down significantly. Investors are disappointed, the share price falls.
Revenues lower than analysts expected - profit margin and profit fall
With the figures now presented for the third quarter of 2023, Tesla has disappointed investors. Burdened by a reduced sales price, the U.S. electric vehicle manufacturer has only achieved revenues of USD 23.35 billion. Tesla thus remains below the expectations of analysts, who had expected an average of USD 24.2 billion. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, revenues in Q3 23 were 9 percent higher (Q3 22: USD 21.45 billion), but compared with the previous quarter the trend is negative with a decline of around 6 percent (Q2 23: USD 24.93 billion).
As a result of the price discounting initiated by Tesla, the profit margin is also falling further. After 25.1 percent in the previous year's quarter Q3 22, Tesla only achieved a value of 17.9 percent in Q3 23.
At USD 1.85 billion, GAAP net income is down 44 percent, significantly lower than the year-ago quarter (Q3 22: USD 3.29 billion) in the tense market environment. According to GAAP, this still results in earnings per share of USD 0.53, which corresponds to a minus of 44 percent compared to the previous year's figure (Q3 22: USD 0.95).
Tesla CEO puts brakes on expectations
Despite the tense market environment, Tesla is sticking to its envisioned goal of increasing its compound annual growth rate by 50 percent. Some years we may grow faster, others slower, depending on a number of factors. For 2023, we expect to be above the long-term CAGR target of 50 percent, with about 1.8 million vehicles for the year, the company said in its quarterly report. However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stressed in the Q3 conference call that Tesla's 2021 growth rate obviously cannot be maintained indefinitely.
In addition, he expressed defensiveness with regard to the further development of Tesla against the backdrop of the unfavorable interest rate environment, in which Tesla does not want to take full risks. In this context, Musk emphasized that he wanted to create the basis for the construction of the new gigafactory planned in Mexico, but that he would keep an eye on the development of the global economy with regard to the concrete implementation in order to get a better feeling for it.
Investors react disappointed - share price in the red
The Tesla share price has already fallen yesterday by 4.8 percent to 229.65 euros (closing price, 18.10.2023, Stuttgart Stock Exchange). The share is also losing heavily this morning and is currently down 4.4 percent at a price of 219.45 euros (10:35 a.m., 10/19/2023, Stuttgart Stock Exchange). Compared to the turn of the year, however, the Tesla share is currently still up 95 percent.
Source: IWR Online, 19 Oct 2023
