Tesla Motors Q1 Profit, Revenues Beat Street View On Strong Deliveries

(RTTNews) - Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) Monday reported a profit for the first quarter that increased from a year ago and trumped Wall Street estimates, driven by 74% surge in revenues, reflecting strong growth in deliveries of Model 3 and Model Y.

Palo Alto, California-based Tesla reported first-quarter profit of $438 million or $0.39 per share, compared to last year's profit of $16 million or $0.02 per share.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.93 per share, compared to $0.23 per share last year. On average, 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.79 per share for the quarter.

The luxury electric car maker's revenues for the quarter surged 74% to $10.39 billion from $5.99 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $10.29 billion.

Tesla said revenue growth was driven by substantial growth in vehicle deliveries, as well as growth in other parts of the business. Tesla delivered 182,847 Model 3/Y to customers, up 140% from last year, while Model S/X deliveries were 2,030, down 83% from last year.

Meanwhile, average selling price declined by 13% year-over-year as Model S and Model X deliveries dropped in first quarter due to the product updates at the same time larger percentage of deliveries were of vehicles that were made in China that have lower ASPs.

Tesla also said that in the first quarter the company was able to "navigate through global chip supply shortage issues in part by pivoting extremely quickly to new microcontrollers, while simultaneously developing firmware for new chips made by new suppliers."

Looking forward, Tesla said it expects to achieve 50% average annual growth in vehicle deliveries over a multi-year horizon. The company expects its operating margin to continue to grow over time, continuing to reach industry-leading levels with capacity expansion and localization plans underway.

TSLA closed Monday's trading at $738.20, up $8.80 or 1.21%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, slipped $20.57 or 2.79%, in the after-hours trade.