What happened
Shares of Lordstown Motors (RIDE -1.70%) jumped as much as 9.5% in trading on Thursday after the company completed its first production vehicles. Shares are trading 7.1% higher at 3 p.m. ET.
So what
The news of the day is that two electric pickup trucks have officially rolled off the production line in Ohio. Foxconn, who is Lordstown's contract manufacturer, is completing a batch of 500 Endurance pickup trucks and aims to deliver 50 to customers this year.
Lordstown's stock has been fluctuating wildly over the last few months as investors worry about the company running out of cash. Trucks need to be delivered to paying customers to keep the business going, and for today, that's pushing the stock higher.
Now what
The chart shows that cash on hand isn't enough to cover the cash being burned by operations each year at the moment. That puts Lordstown in a precarious position, needing to improve its own operations just to survive.
RIDE Cash from Operations (TTM) data by YCharts
As much as investors might be excited about this stock today, I don't think we've seen evidence that Lordstown has solved its fundamental problem. The company needs to sell enough vehicles to cover operating costs, and even selling 500 vehicles won't do that.
This is a stock that's high risk and may not be worth the reward. Lordstown has an interesting product, but it doesn't have the scale of many of its competitors, and that's what will keep me out of the stock today.
