Tesla shares jump as factory ramp hits profit margins

Tesla TSLA shares moved higher Thursday after the clean-energy carmaker posted record third quarter profits but warned that ramping up production at new plants in Texas and Germany would pressure profit margins over the final months of the year.

The cautious outlook somewhat clouded last night s blowout earnings, which included record net income of $2.093 billion U.S. revenues of $13.76 billion and a 30.5 per cent profit margin over the three months ending in September.

Tesla said non-GAAP earnings were pegged at $1.86 per share, up 135 per cent from the same period last year and well ahead of the Street consensus forecast of $1.59 per share.

There is quite an execution journey ahead of us, CFO Zach Kirkhorn told investors on a conference call late Wednesday. We ve talked about this a bit, you know, the unknown unknown unknowns, new factories, new vehicle designs, new technologies, new locations, new teams but it remains our goal in both Austin and Berlin to be able to build our first production cars before the end of the year. It s important to stress, while the first production car is an important milestone, the hardest work lies ahead in the ramp. Please keep in mind that we are pushing the boundaries on new product and manufacturing technologies at these factories, which makes it difficult to predict the exact pace of the ramp, Kirkhorn noted. These factories will also partially weigh on our margins as we work toward volume production. Tesla shares were marked 2.5 per cent higher in early trading Thursday to change hands at $887.08 each.

Tesla noted in its earnings release that a variety of challenges, including semiconductor shortages, congestion at ports and rolling blackouts, have been impacting our ability to keep factories running at full speed, although the group still managed to deliver a record 241,300 new cars over the three months ended in October, up 73.2 per cent from last year and nearly 20 per cent higher than the 201,250 reached in the second quarter.

With Tesla delivering better than expected 3 Q margin and EPS results, we believe the company is demonstrating the benefit of its software-defined vehicle architecture and the learning cycles it enables, said Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch, who carries and outperform rating with a $1,080. Tesla also continues to navigate global supply chain challenges, we expect it to continue outperforming peers and to test demand elasticity with higher vehicle prices to support margins while ramping incremental capacity, he added.

Earlier this month, Tesla also unveiled plans to move its headquarters from Texas, its home for nearly two decades, to California, the site of its developing gigafactory and the home of SpaceX.

The decision, announced at the company s annual meeting in San Francisco, follows both Musk personal move to the Lone Star State and a series of rows between the carmaking billionaire and California authorities over issues including safety, taxes and COVID - 19 precautions.

Musk also pledged to maintain the group s Freemont, California-based plant, adding that he hoped to boost production there by 50 per cent over the coming years.