Musk announced Tesla’s earnings and commented on the purchase of Twitter
Tesla reported third-quarter earnings, and company executives answered a wide range of questions, including macroeconomic concerns and CEO Elon Musk’s expected acquisition of Twitter. Tesla shares fell about 5% after announcement of results.
Earnings: $1.05 vs. 99 cents per share (adjusted), according to analysts polled by Refinitiv
Revenue: $21.45 billion vs. $21.96 billion, according to Refinitiv
Tesla’s Q3 2022 net income reached $3.33 billion, with a gross margin of 27.9%, exactly the same as Q2 2022. For the same period last year, Tesla reported a profit of $1.62 billion.
Elon Musk answered questions from shareholders about the demand for electric cars and a possible share buyback.
“I can’t emphasize enough we have excellent demand for Q4 and we expect to sell every car that we’ve made,” Musk said. “The factories are running at full speed and delivering every car we make.”
He added that Tesla is likely to do a “significant share buyback” next year, potentially worth $5 billion to $10 billion, subject to board approval.
He also optimistically said, “I believe we can far exceed Apple’s current market capitalization. In fact, I see a potential path to Tesla being worth more than Apple and Saudi Aramco combined. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen right away or it’s going to be easy.”
Musk also talked about his upcoming acquisition of Twitter:
“Myself and the other investors are obviously overpaying for Twitter right now. The long-term potential for Twitter in my view is an order of magnitude greater than its current value.”
Musk is expected to sell some of his shares in Tesla to finance the closing of the deal to buy Twitter, which is worth $44 billion.
Tesla’s revenue from car sales amounted to $18.69 billion, which is 55% more than a year ago. Cost of revenue from the company’s core automotive business rose to $13.48 billion during the quarter, compared with $10.52 billion in the second quarter, in line with the increase in auto sales.
The company confirmed that deliveries of the Semi electric heavy truck will begin in December, and noted that it manufactures the Semi in Nevada, which also manufactures batteries for Tesla cars in the US. The Semi was first announced in December 2017.
At the same time, Tesla did not announce the timing of the start of production of its Cybertruck pickup, saying only that it will be produced in Texas after ramping up Model Y production there.