Hard-driving Chinese electric vehicle (EV) company NIO (NIO 2.30%) decelerated in evening trading Monday, following the release of its Q4 2020 results after market close.
The quarter saw NIO book total revenue of 6.64 billion yuan ($1.03 billion), double and then some from the same period one year ago. That was on the back of a 110% improvement in vehicle deliveries, which set a new quarterly record at 17,353 units. The company also managed to narrow its non-GAAP (adjusted) net loss, which came in at 1.33 billion yuan ($205 million), equating to $0.15 per share, against the Q4 2019 deficit of 2.81 billion yuan ($435 million).
Image source: NIO.
NIO's top-line figure edged past the consensus analyst estimate of the equivalent of $1.01 billion. However, those prognosticators were expecting a per-share adjusted loss of only $0.07.
The company proffered guidance for its current Q1. It believes deliveries will continue to rise, and will amount to 20,000 to 20,500 units. That would represent a far sharper year-over-year growth trajectory (at least 421%) than the Q4 showing. Consequently, a similar dynamic is expected for revenue, which NIO is forecasting will land at 7.38 billion ($1.14 billion) to 7.56 billion ($1.17 billion)
Sales for the company have lately been brisk in China, due in no small part to its government's ambition to make EVs the rule rather the exception on the country's roads.
But NIO's strong growth has raised expectations for its overall performance, and it seems that investors are taking the bottom-line miss hard. In post-market trading, the company's shares were down by more than 4%.
