The quarterly season continues to take its toll on Wall Street. After Snapchat, ending up in the crosshairs of "disappointed" investors are Tesla and Spotify who published their accounts for the first three months of 2018 last night, with the markets closed.
But if in the case of the music streaming giant it was precisely the numbers and forecasts for the second quarter that did not conquer the approval of the market, in the case of the electric car manufacturer the rain in sales seems to be more a reaction to the angry words of the CEO Elon Musk spoken during the conference call.
Tesla closed the first quarter of 2018 with a net loss of $784,6 million. However, revenues rose to 3,4 billion. Both results are slightly higher than analysts' expectations. On a seasonally adjusted basis, Tesla's loss was $3,35 per share versus $3,42 expected and revenue was $3,23 billion. The automaker has confirmed its target (delayed twice) for a weekly production of 5 units of the Model 3 by June. The company expects 2018 Capex to be "slightly less than $3 billion" versus $3,4 billion in 2017. Tesla had $2,7 billion in cash at the end of March.
As mentioned, the markets did not like Elon Musk's behavior during the call. Tesla's CEO declined to give details of the company's potential funding needs, angrily stating: "These questions are so dry. They are killing me“. Words that in the after-hours of 2 May caused a 4,5% sell-off on the stock. In today's pre-market, Tesla shares were down 7,7%, at 16.00 the drop is 6,66% to 281 dollars.
Different speech on Spotify. The first quarter of 2018, after the debut on the Stock Exchange on April 3 with an unusual direct offer without bank support, disappointed market expectations and showed how the group continues to lose money. What worries investors is above all the increase in competition from Apple and Amazon, but also the increase in costs: Spotify is investing in research and development. 50% of hirings in the first quarter of 2018 were in that sector, which however does not bring in money in the short term.
In detail, the first three months of the current year were archived with an operating loss of 41 million euro, an improvement of 55% compared to the previous quarter and of 71% compared to the same period last year. The net loss was €169 million, 1,01 euros per share, against 173 million euros, 1,15 euros per share, in the same period of 2017. Analysts had expected a lower loss of 28 cents per share. Revenues, as expected, amounted to 1,14 billion euros, monthly active users in the months January - March were 170 million users, an increase of 30% compared to the same period of 2017, of which 75 million of subscribers.
They also worry second quarter estimates which should close with revenues of 1,1-1,3 billion euros, against the 1,29 billion expected by the market and paid users estimated at 79-83 million, against 82,1 million expected by analysts.
Just over half an hour from the opening of Wall Street, the stock loses almost 10% (-9,8% to be precise) at $153,816.
