Stock in
Fisker
was falling sharply after the electric-vehicle start-up reported weaker-than-expected third-quarter numbers and cut 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 loss of 23 a share from sales of about $143 million. This was Fisker’s first quarter of significant sales shipping the Ocean, its first EV.
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.
“In a separate filing, Fisker warned that it will delay its 10-Q filing after finding material weaknesses in internal controls, stating that it was unable, without reasonable effort and expense, to complete the preparation of its quarterly report by November 9,” wrote CFRA analsyt Garrett Nelson in a research report Monday. That warning followed the departure of a former chief accounting officer, effective Oct 27.
He rates shares Sell and has a $1 price target on the stock. TD Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne rates shares Buy. His price target is $11 a share. He cited “growing pains” for weak deliveries adding in a report, “Arguably the key takeaway from results was that once Fisker is able to figure out the delivery end of the equation it should be able to scale production as needed to meet demand.”
Fisker stock was down 22% Tuesday while the market surged ahead following better-than-expected inflation data. The
S&P 500
and
Nasdaq Composite
were up about 2% and 2.3%, respectively.
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 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 implied 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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