What happened
Shares of Tesla (TSLA -3.24%) declined 6.7% on Thursday after the electric vehicle (EV) maker's sales and delivery forecast failed to impress investors.
So what
Tesla's revenue surged 56% year over year to $21.5 billion in the third quarter. That fell short of Wall Street's expectations for revenue of $22 billion.
The company's vehicle deliveries rose to 343,830, up from 241,391 in the year-ago period, representing growth of 42%. Yet that, too, fell short of analysts' estimates, which had called for deliveries of 371,000 vehicles.
Still, price hikes helped to offset rising production costs. Tesla's operating income, in turn, soared 84% to $3.7 billion, as its operating margin improved to 17.2% from 14.6% in the prior-year quarter.
All told, Tesla's adjusted earnings per share increased 69% to $1.05, besting the consensus estimate of $0.99.
Now what
During the company's earnings call, CEO Elon Musk said Tesla would maintain the manufacturing cadence of its EVs even if the economy were to fall into a recession. "We're very pedal to the metal come rain or shine," Musk said. "So, we are not reducing our production in any meaningful way, recession or not recession."
Musk also offered a bullish sales forecast for the fourth quarter and beyond. "I can't emphasize enough, we have excellent demand for Q4, and we expect to sell every car that we make for as far in the future as we can see," Musk said.
However, CFO Zachary Kirkhorn said Tesla would fall short of its goal of 50% delivery growth in 2022. Kirkhorn said the shortfall was "due to an increase in the cars in transit at the end of the year" that would delay some deliveries until the first quarter of next year.
