Stock in
ChargePoint,
a leading electric-vehicle charging equipment maker, was plunging Friday after preannouncing weak third-quarter results and changing key management.
ChargePoint (ticker: CHPT) announced Thursday evening that third-quarter sales would fall between $108 million and $113 million. Prior guidance called for $150 million to $165 million. Wall Street was looking for $150 million.
The calendar quarter, of course, ended in September. ChargePoint’s fiscal quarter ended in October. The company’s warning came shortly after the company started closing its books.
ChargePoint is also taking a $42 million non-cash charge against earnings. The reason isn’t well defined in the release. ChargePoint didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Operating expenses came in as expected at about $80 million and the company ended October with about $400 million and an undrawn $150 million revolving credit facility.
Overall, it’s a surprisingly bad update. Shares were down about 27% in premarket trading Friday while
S&P 500
futures were flat and
Nasdaq Composite
futures were up 0.2%.
“Our core markets of North America and Europe both came under pressure late in the third quarter, with revenue falling far short of expectations,” said CEO Rick Wilmer in a news release. “Overall macroeconomic conditions, along with fleet and commercial vehicle delivery delays impacted anticipated deployments with government, auto dealership, and workplace customers.”
Higher rates impact any builders’ ability and willingness to pay for and put in charging infrastructure. In that way, higher rates have slowed the economy, just like the Federal Reserve intended.
It’s the second consecutive quarter with a sales miss. The struggles have led to some leadership changes. Wilmer took over from Pat Romano. Mansi Khetani has taken over as CFO from Rex Jackson.
ChargePoint is the leading U.S. EV-charging company. Its expected second-quarter sales of about $110 million are much larger than the publicly traded competition.
Wallbox
(WBX) reported $33 million in third-quarter sales.
EVgo
(EVGO) reported about $35 million.
Blink Charging
(BLNK) reported about $43 million in third-quarter revenue.
Beam
(BEEM) reported about $16.5 million.
ChargePoint stock has been badly beaten up heading into its third-quarter results. Coming into Friday trading, shares were off 75% over the past 12 months.
ChargePoint stock was downgraded to Hold from Buy at both Roth MKM and Janney Montgomery Scott. Now about 74% of analysts covering shares rate then Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%. The average analyst price target is about $9 a share.
That ratio and target price will likely change more after this third-quarter update.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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