Recently, news about Tesla CEO Musk has continued to affect the capital market, and it often drives the explosion of the A-share concept sector in just one sentence. This is the strengthening of the concept of robots and human brain engineering.
However, regardless of whether the founder is suspected of hype, Tesla's status as a global new energy vehicle giant is unquestionable. At a time when the prospects for new energy vehicles are improving, the company's achievements have also attracted much attention. Overnight, Tesla released its second-quarter financial report, with a lot of information worth paying attention to.
Tesla's Q2 financial report was released
After the US stock market on July 20, Eastern Time, Tesla released its second quarter financial report, among which the company's operating income and net profit both declined significantly month-on-month, and the growth rate slowed significantly compared with the first quarter.
Specifically, the company's operating income in the second quarter was US$16.934 billion, a year-on-year increase of 42% from the second quarter of last year, slightly higher than analysts' expectations of US$16.88 billion, but lower than the first quarter of this year's revenue, a month-on-month decline of 9.71%.
The company's adjusted net profit in the second quarter was US$2.62 billion, a year-on-year increase of 52%, but a month-on-month decline of 29.87%, and its profitability slowed down significantly, following the year-on-year growth rate of as high as 255%.
adjusted earnings per share (EPS) under non-GAAP caliber in the second quarter was $2.27, a year-on-year increase of 57%, higher than analysts' expectations of $1.83, but lower than the 246% growth rate of EPS hit a new high to $3.22 in the first quarter of this year.
At this point, Tesla ended its momentum of hitting a record high in a single quarter for three consecutive quarters and hitting a record high in EPS profit for five consecutive quarters.
What is worth paying attention to is the company's automobile business and gross profit margin.
In the second quarter, Tesla's automobile business gross profit was US$4.081 billion, a year-on-year increase of 41%, a significant decline compared with the first quarter. The gross profit margin of the automobile business under the GAAP caliber in the second quarter was 27.9%, and analysts expected 26.9%, lower than 32.9% in the first quarter and 28.4% in the second quarter of last year. This is also the first time that Tesla's automobile business gross profit margin has been below 30% in the past four quarters.
What is the reason for the decline in gross profit margin?
gross profit margin is an important indicator for measuring the profitability of enterprises. Domestic new energy vehicle companies such as BYD, NIO, Xiaopeng, Ideal, etc. have gross profit margins around 20%. Tesla can achieve a gross profit margin of more than 30% last year, which shows its position in the industry. Although
declined in the second quarter, the gross profit margin of 27.9% of the automobile is still not low. In fact, before the second quarter report was released, some analysts predicted that Tesla may be very difficult in the second quarter due to continued supply chain hinderment and factory shutdowns related to the epidemic.
Overall, the decline in gross profit margin is caused by the combined influence of various factors such as high inflation and intensified competition in electric vehicle batteries and other components. In addition, as the dollar rose strongly against many other currencies, foreign exchange disadvantage also affected performance.
After the release of this financial report, the media said that profit compression is expected. In a quarter of decline in growth, it is already a huge victory for Tesla to maintain positive profits. Moreover, while warning the US Texas and Germany that production climbing is facing challenges, Tesla looks confident of strong results in the second half of the year. At the same time, this also means that Tesla's rapid money-burning momentum will not stop soon.
To improve cash positions, Tesla sold 75% of the bitcoin it purchased, adding $936 million to its balance sheet in the second quarter. But Musk pointed out that this is just to maximize cash positions, and selling Bitcoin should not be considered some kind of judgment on the trend of Bitcoin.
At the same time, Musk denied that the impact of economic weakness on demand may lead to a decline in Tesla's car sales. He pointed out that Tesla's problem is not demand, but that production cannot keep up with excessive demand.
In this regard, Tesla is increasing its production capacity upgrade.
financial report shows that the Shanghai factory has recently undergone production capacity upgrades, with an annual production capacity of more than 750,000 vehicles, making it the highest production capacity of Tesla. In addition, Tesla's annual production capacity of 650,000 vehicles in California factory in the United States, while the annual production capacity of the factory in Berlin, Germany and the Texas factory in the United States exceeded 250,000 vehicles, and the gross profit margin is gradually improving.
According to data previously released by the China Passenger Car Association, Tesla China delivered a total of 78,900 vehicles in June, a record high.In the first half of this year, Tesla delivered a total of 295,000 cars in China, which shows that market demand is still high.
This also gave Deutsche Bank a firm confidence in being bullish. The bank said the company's supply issues are "fast improvement", which provides a "convincing opportunity to accumulate positions" for the second half of the year and 2023, and Tesla's sales growth and profit margin expansion "may be significant." It made a "call to buy" suggestion for Tesla, with a target price of $1,125 (compared with the current quotation of $742.5, there is still 50% room for upward).
Musk hopes to reduce the price
It is worth noting that as the quotation of battery-grade lithium carbonate continues to hit a new high in 2021, downstream car companies have raised prices due to cost pressure, and Tesla is also one of them. After multiple price increases, the price increase of Tesla models exceeded 10%.
However, Musk expressed his hope to reduce the price.
Tesla CEO Musk said he hopes to lower the price of the car at some point. "We can't raise prices to a certain arbitrary high level just because we have crossed the limit of affordability, and then demand will plummet. We have raised prices several times. Frankly speaking, the price of cars is at an awkward level now. But we also face a lot of shocks in supply chains and production, as well as crazy inflation. I just hope that at some point we can lower prices a little."
Previously, Musk said on Twitter that if US inflation drops, it will lower Tesla prices. During the call, he pointed out that car prices may drop slightly by the end of this year.
However, it is still impossible to determine whether Tesla's price cut will be as Musk wishes. The upstream lithium carbonate cost pressure will remain huge in the second half of the year. According to the 21st Century Capital Research Institute, expectations including third-party research institutions and seller institutions have begun to loosen. It generally believes that with the support of the cost of imported ore and the demand for the second half of the year, the prices of products such as lithium carbonate are expected to resume their upward trend in the future, and even challenge the previous high of 520,000 yuan/ton. Ma Rui, chief analyst of the lithium industry of
SMM, judged that in the second half of the year, the lithium carbonate market will maintain a small destocking rhythm, and the fourth quarter will enter the rush installation stage at the end of the year. The rapid rise in demand at home and abroad may further widen the supply and demand gap, and the spot price of lithium carbonate rises.
Against the backdrop of the tight overall supply and demand this year, lithium salt prices still have the possibility of rising in the second half of the year, which will be a new test for the profitability of downstream car companies.
