Fisker
earnings, reported Friday morning, topped analyst expectations, but that was the extent of the good news. Sales were far worse than Wall Street projected. Production guidance was cut, too.
The stock was up 3.1 % initially on new vehicles unveiled by the auto maker late Thursday. Those gains, though, evaporated. By midday, shares were down 6.4%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were off 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively.
Fisker (ticker: FSR) lost 25 cents from $825,000 in sales. Wall Street was looking for a 27-cent loss from $48.9 million in sales. The loss was smaller than expected, but losses at start-ups with little in the way of sales can be all over the place. The sales number is the bigger surprise.
So were the production numbers. Fisker and its partners produced 1,022 Ocean SUVs in the quarter. That’s short of the 1,400 to 1,700 planned. What’s more, only a handful were delivered. Just 11 found their way to European customers.
Looking ahead, the company said it expects to produce 20,000 to 23,000 units in 2023. In May, management’s production range for the year was 32,000 to 36,000 vehicles. The May range was cut from February when management’s goal was 42,000 to 43,000 units for 2023.
“A couple of suppliers had challenges ramping to targeted Q2 levels,” reads part of Fisker’s Q2 earnings press release. “But the company is intently focused on working with all suppliers to swiftly ramp.”
Full-year sales are expected to be in the range of $565 million to $640 million. Wall Street was looking for about $1.3 billion.
On Thursday evening, Fisker unveiled new vehicles including a sports car dubbed Ronin, a crossover-size vehicle called Pear, and a pickup truck named Alaska which looks smaller than a
Ford Motor
(F) F-150 Lighting all-electric pickup truck.
“Innovation and sustainability, along with design, are our three brand values,” said CEO Henrik Fisker in a news release. “By 2027, we intend to produce the world’s first climate-neutral vehicle, and as our customers reinvent their relationships with mobility, we want to be a leader in software-defined transportation.”
Cash at the end of the quarter totaled about $522 million. That excludes $300 million in proceeds from the July convertible note offering and $33 million in tax refunds.
Wall Street projects Fisker will use about $100 million a quarter for the coming few quarters.
Coming into Friday trading, Fisker stock was down about 13% year to date and off about 39% over the past 12 months. Higher interest rates and a slower-than-expected production ramp have weighed on investor sentiment.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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