Tesla late Wednesday reported mixed fourth-quarter results, with revenue slightly below Wall Street expectations, but injected some optimism in its production outlook for 2023.
$Tesla (TSLA.US)$ earned $3.69 billion, or $1.07 a share, in the quarter, compared with $2.3 billion, or 68 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for one-time items, Tesla earned $1.19 a share, while the CIQ Analyst Consensus of was $1.11 a share.
Revenue for the quarter jumped 37% to $24.32 billion, from $17.7 billion a year ago. The company reported quarterly sales which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $24.16 billion.
As for outlook, Tesla kept more or less intact the same language it has kept for several past quarters, with a crucial difference.
Tesla said it plans to grow its manufacturing capacity "as quickly as possible," about 50% average annual growth over a "multi-year horizon" in deliveries. For 2023, however, it expected to "remain ahead" of that long-term goal and reach 1.8 million vehicles a year.
Gross automotive margins were 25.9%, a bide decline from the last year, Tesla said, and the 27.9% figure recorded over the third quarter, owing to big price cuts in the U.S. and China as well as costs linked to the ramp-up of production in Berlin and Texas.
"Cybertruck remains on track to begin production later this year at Gigafactory Texas," the company accounced during in its fourth quarter earnings.
Earnings Highlights
Profitability
16.8% operating margin in 2022; 16.0% in Q4
$13.7B GAAP operating income in 2022; $3.9B in Q4
$12.6B GAAP net income in 2022;$3.7B in Q4$
14.1B non-GAAP net income in 2022; $4.1B in Q4
Cash
Operating cash flow of $14.7B; free cash flow of $7.6B in 2022
Operating cash flow of $3.3B; free cash flow of $1.4B in Q4
$1.1B increase in our cash and investments in Q4 to $22.2B
Operations
6.5 GWh of energy storage deployed in 2022, up 64% YoY
Record vehicle deliveries of 1.31 million in 2022
Financial Summary
Vehicle Capacity
Tesla shares were down nearly 0.2% in after-hours trading.