Stock in electric vehicle start-up
Fisker
was down after reporting weaker-than-expected third-quarter numbers and cutting full-year production guidance.
It wasn’t a great quarter.
Fisker (ticker: FSR) announced a third-quarter per-share loss of 27 cents from sales of about $72 million on Monday evening. Wall Street was looking for a 23-cents-per-share loss from sales of about $143 million. This was Fisker’s first quarter of significant sales shipping its first EV called the Ocean.
Fisker delivered 1,097 vehicles and produced 4,725 in the quarter. The company added in its news release that 1,200 were delivered in October as well.
Full-year production guidance is now 13,000 to 17,000 units. In August, the company said it planned to build about 20,000 to 23,000 units this year. That was trimmed from earlier guidance. In May, Fisker’s production forecast called for 32,000 to 36,000 units in 2023.
“This is a very prudent change that we need to do to enable our global delivery and logistics platform to scale so we can serve our customers even better and we are not sitting on inventory,” said Chief Financial Officer Geeta Gupta-Fisker during the company’s earnings conference call.
Management expects full-year 2023 research and development, selling, general and administration expenses, and capital spending to be between $565 million and $640 million. That is the same range that was provided in August.
Fisker ended the quarter with some $625 million in cash and investments on its books. Wall Street expects the company to use roughly $75 million a quarter for the coming few quarters, according to FactSet.
Fisker stock was down more than 13% in premarket trading Tuesday at $3.56 a share.
The stock gained 6.6% in regular trading Monday, closing at $4.11 a share. That is 26 cents away from where the stock closed at on Nov. 7. This earnings report wasn’t typical. Fisker was due to report earnings on Nov. 8 but delayed its report after hiring a new chief accounting officer. Fisker stock slid from $4.37 a share to $3.99 a share after the delay was announced on Nov 8.
Through Monday trading, Fisker stock was down 52% over the past 12 months while the
S&P 500
and
Nasdaq Composite
were up about 11% and 23%, respectively. Higher interest rates and lower prices for EVs, caused mainly by
Tesla
(TSLA) price cuts, have sapped investor enthusiasm for stock in EV start-ups that aren’t profitable yet.
Options markets imply the stock will move about 15%, up or down, following earnings. Shares have moved an average of about 12%, up or down, after the past four quarterly reports, gaining one time and falling three times over that span.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
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