Tesla misses on earnings, expects 50% average annual growth in deliveries going forward
Tesla reported earnings after the bell and it's a miss on earnings, but another profitable quarter for Elon Musk's electric vehicle and solar business.
Shares were down about 3% after hours.
Here are the results, versus what analysts were expecting according to estimates compiled by Refinitiv:
The company also gave some production guidance going forward, writing "Over a multi-year horizon, we expect to achieve 50% average annual growth in vehicle deliveries." Tesla expects faster delivery growth than that for 2021, with two new factories expected to come online this year and updated versions of its Model S and X vehicles about to begin production.
Gross margins reached 19.2% for Tesla in the fourth quarter of 2020, the lowest since the last quarter of 2019. Capital expenditures hit $1.15 billion for the period ending December 31, 2020.
The company also reported positive free cash flow for 2020 of $2.79 billion, more than double its 2019 figure of $1.08 billion.
Tesla previously said it had delivered 499,550 vehicles in 2020, falling barely shy of its guidance for half a million vehicle deliveries in 2020. (Deliveries are the closest approximation of sales numbers disclosed by Tesla.) It produced 509,737 vehicles during the year.
Both deliveries and production numbers set a new record for the maturing electric car company, seen as a triumph in a year when auto sales and factory operations were dampened by a global pandemic.
