Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, gestures as he attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, France, June 16, 2023.
Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
Tesla reports second-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday.
Here’s what Wall Street is expecting from Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker, according to analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv:
- Revenue: $24.47 billion
- Earnings: 82 cents per share
During the first quarter of 2023, Tesla reported revenue of $23.33 billion on net income of $2.51 billion. During the second quarter last year, Tesla reported $16.93 billion in revenue on net income of $2.27 billion.
Early this month, Tesla reported 466,140 total vehicle deliveries for the second quarter, and said it had produced 479,700 electric vehicles. (Deliveries are the closest approximation of sales that Tesla reports.)
Because those deliveries were higher than Wall Street expected, and were partly driven by incentives and discounts, investors will likely be looking for information on how Tesla’s price cuts affected margins.
Retail shareholders are also hoping the company will offer more updates on the Cybertruck on Wednesday’s earnings call, according to questions submitted beforehand on a platform run by Say Technologies.
In the past week, Tesla shared a photo on social media of what it said was the first Cybertruck ever built at its Austin, Texas factory. However, the company had not yet disclosed specs or pricing for the sci-fi-inspired, angular pickup that Musk originally debuted and promoted in 2019.
Besides Cybertruck details, retail investors posting on Say wanted updates on Tesla’s production of 4680 battery cells, which are seen as critical to ramping up production of the company’s class 8 Semi trucks and the Cybertruck, on Tesla’s development of a humanoid robot (referred to as the Tesla Bot or Optimus), and about a new factory Tesla said it will build in Mexico.
Investors are also seeking updates on the company’s progress towards developing an autonomous or robotaxi-ready vehicle. While Musk touted Tesla’s self-driving ambitions in 2016, he said the company would conduct a hands-free trip across the U.S. by the end of 2017. Tesla has yet to complete that mission.
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a note earlier this week, “To keep the rally going, we think Tesla needs to prove it’s more than just an auto company.”
Musk, who is also the CEO of SpaceX and controlling shareholder and CTO of social media company Twitter, recently started yet another new company, xAI, which he incorporated in Nevada. Musk said earlier this month that xAI plans to collaborate with both Tesla and Twitter, and that xAI would probably work with his EV business on the “silicon front” and on the “AI software front.”
