Tesla TSLA Q4 earnings revenues lag estimates

Tesla reports lower-than-expected earnings, missing estimates by 5.33%. Despite this, the stock is expected to outperform the market in the near future.

Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) recently released its quarterly earnings, reporting a profit of $0.71 per share, which fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.75 per share. This is a decrease from the earnings of $1.19 per share reported a year ago. These figures have been adjusted for non-recurring items.

This resulted in an earnings surprise of -5.33%, as the company was expected to post earnings of $0.72 per share, but only delivered $0.66 per share, resulting in a surprise of -8.33%.

Over the last four quarters, Tesla has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times.

The company's revenues for the quarter ended December 2023 were $25.17 billion, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.97%. This is compared to year-ago revenues of $24.32 billion. Tesla has only topped consensus revenue estimates once over the last four quarters.

The stock's immediate price movement will depend on management's commentary on the earnings call and future earnings expectations.

Tesla shares have declined by about 15.8% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P 500 has gained 2%.

Investors are now wondering what's next for Tesla. One way to address this is to look at the company's earnings outlook, including current consensus earnings expectations and how these expectations have changed recently.

Before the earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Tesla was favorable, resulting in a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) for the stock. This suggests that the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.85 on $26.56 billion in revenues for the coming quarter, and $3.77 on $117.47 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should also consider the industry outlook, as it can impact the stock's performance. The Automotive - Domestic industry is currently in the bottom 37% of the 250 plus Zacks industries.

Rivian Automotive (RIVN), a competitor in the same industry, is yet to report its results for the quarter ended December 2023. The company is expected to post a quarterly loss of $1.37 per share, representing a year-over-year change of +20.8%.

Rivian Automotive's revenues are expected to be $1.26 billion, up 90.6% from the year-ago quarter.

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