- Tesla rose 7% in premarket trading Thursday after beating Wall Street estimates for revenue and earnings.
- CEO Elon Musk said Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory is "coming back with a vengeance," signaling confidence in further output.
- Musk announced Tesla is targeting 2024 to produce a robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals.
Tesla rose 7% in Thursday's premarket session after smashing Wall Street estimates for revenue and earnings in its first-quarter results, and after CEO Elon Musk announced plans to build a "robotaxi" by 2024.
The world's largest electric-vehicle maker delivered a better-than-expected quarter by posting a record profit.
Quarterly revenue stood at $18.8 billion, beating estimates for $17.9 billion, and up 81% year-on-year. Earnings per share came in at $2.86, compared with expectations for $2.27, and adjusted earnings per share were $3.22.
Still, Tesla said it expects supply-chain issues to remain a key hurdle for the rest of the year, saying its factories have been running below capacity for the last several quarters.
"While earnings season so far has been mixed, Tesla's numbers last night did much to restore optimism, especially at a tricky time for the company," Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG Group, said, in a likely reference to inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions.
Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory, which was responsible for half the company's global production last year, had been impacted by a surge in COVID-19 cases in China. But after the total shutdowns imposed by local authorities, a measured restarting of production has begun.
The Gigafactory "is coming back with a vengeance," Musk said, adding that he expects to see record output per week as long as new issues don't arise.
"The worst of supply-chain disruption has also been shrugged off — so while it is still a drag, it doesn't appear to be derailing the situation as badly as some had feared," Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said.
Musk said last year he wouldn't appear on earnings calls any more, but broke that trend this quarter. He acknowledged the company recently increased prices for its vehicles due to pressure from inflation, which is at a 41-year-high.
"We absolutely want to make EVs as affordable as possible. It's been very difficult with the... inflation," Musk said on the call.
He said Tesla's suppliers were under severe cost pressure, with some asking for 30% cost rises. But he said he hopes Tesla doesn't have to hike prices again, noting current prices are for deliveries as much as 12 months away.
"The higher vehicle prices also suggest the group isn't facing the same headwinds from inflation as others, which is testament to Tesla's ineffable brand," Lund-Yates said.
Separately, Musk shared details about a planned robotaxi, saying it will be free of steering wheels or pedals. He said it will be "highly optimized for autonomy" and would be a "massive driver of Tesla's growth." Tesla may hold an event next year to divulge more.
Tesla competitor Rivian this week warned that a shortage of EV batteries could become a bigger issue than the current chip shortage for the industry. But Tesla's automotive margins rose to a new high of 32.9%.
"While others struggle with deliveries, Elon's firm has powered ahead, and the positive share price reaction will be taken as an endorsement of the company's current approach," Beauchamp said.
Earlier in April, Tesla made a record-breaking 310,000 deliveries in the first quarter, beating Wall Street's estimate for 309,000 deliveries.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Tesla's "Cinderella-like" delivery numbers against a brutal supply-chain backdrop highlights a robust EV demand trajectory heading into the rest of the year.
The shutdown of the Shanghai factory is the elephant in the room, according to Ives. That could cause a headwind of 50,000 units for Tesla in the quarter as "China's zero-COVID policy remains a slowly fading overhang on the stock," he said.
Tesla was last up 7.4% at $1,050.45 a share as of 6:50 a.m. ET Thursday.
