Touchscreen displays information as a Tesla car recharges.
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Tesla reports first-quarter earnings after the close of trading Wednesday. This earnings print sets up to be more interesting than usual for the electric-vehicle leader.
Inflation, war and disease have roiled the entire auto sector recently.
The average price for a basket of metals that go into EV batteries rose 74% in the first quarter from the fourth. The Russian invasion of Ukraine created more parts supply shortages, frustrating purchasing managers. And new Covid lockdown policies in China shut Tesla’s (ticker: TSLA) Shanghai plant at the end of the quarter.
It isn’t easy predicting earnings this time around. Tesla’s investor relations department offers a summary of analysts’ estimates to help. The company compiled consensus calls for earnings per share of $2.30 from $18.1 billion in sales. That compares with earnings of $2.54 a share and sales of $17.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Automotive gross profits margins, excluding regulatory credits, are projected to be about 27.7% in the first quarter, down from 29.2% reported in the fourth quarter. Regulatory credit sales are expected to be about $312 million, flat with the fourth quarter.
Total operating profit is projected to be $2.6 billion, a few million dollars higher than the reported fourth-quarter operating profit.
Those are numbers investors can use to help judge the quality of the quarter. What the stock will do after the report is anyone’s guess. Shares have fallen after Tesla reported three of the past four quarters. The company beat estimates each time.
Optionsns markets imply the stock will move roughly 5%, up or down, following the earnings report. Shares dropped 11.6% after fourth-quarter earnings were reported on Jan. 26. It took shares about four trading days to recover the earnings-related stock drop.
Coming into Wednesday trading, Tesla shares have fallen about 3% year to date. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average have declined about 6% and 4%, respectively.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
