What happened
Shares of Luminar Technologies (LAZR +13.55%) skyrocketed today, up by 15% as of 12:30 p.m. EDT, after the company provided a business update for investors as well as preliminary results for 2020. The lidar technology company also offered some milestones that it hopes to achieve in 2021.
So what
Revenue for 2020 is estimated to be approximately $14 million, and Luminar finished the year with roughly $486 million in cash on the balance sheet after merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) last year. The consensus estimate had called for revenue of $15 million, but investors are rightly focused on the long-term opportunities since Luminar is a young company and design cycles in the automotive industry are extremely long.
Image source: Getty Images.
The company said that its order book is growing faster than expected and now stands at $1.3 billion, up from its initial forecast of $1 billion. Luminar attributed the outperformance to increased volume expectations from existing programs.
Now what
Luminar has set five milestones for success in 2021:
- Industrialize its Iris sensor for series production.
- Win at least three major commercial programs.
- Continue developing its Sentinel software for alpha release at the end of 2021.
- Grow the order book by 40%.
- Maintain disciplined spending and end the year with more cash than it started the year with, after raising over $150 million from the exercise of warrants.
The company is forecasting revenue of $25 million to $30 million in 2021, and expects to spend $140 million in cash this year.
