What happened
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average are both off to a bearish start in Tuesday's trading session, and shares of popular clean energy stocks Plug Power (PLUG -1.25%), Fisker (FSRN 57.50%), and Lucid (LCID -3.92%) are no different. Like famed fuel cell stock Plug Power, electric vehicle (EV) makers Fisker and Lucid reported quarterly earnings, and investors aren't charged up about what the companies had to share.
As of 11:49 a.m. ET, shares of Plug Power are down 14.3%, while Fisker and Lucid have fallen 6.5% and 8.1%, respectively.
So what
Beating analysts' top-line estimate of $205.1 million, Plug Power reported first-quarter 2023 revenue of $210.3 million. This achievement is doing little to distract investors from the company's failure to meet analysts' bottom-line expectations. While analysts expected a loss per share of $0.26, Plug reported a $0.35 loss per share.
Gross margin represented another source of disappointment as the company moved farther away from achieving a gross profit compared to last year. Whereas Plug had a negative 25% gross margin in Q1 2022, its $69.4 million gross loss in Q1 2023 resulted in a negative gross margin of 33%, a result of higher hydrogen costs.
Unlike Plug, which provided a surprise regarding its revenue, Fisker failed to deliver on both the top and bottom lines of the income statement. The company reported Q1 2023 sales of $0.2 million, notably lower than the $14.4 million that analysts had expected the company to report. Similarly, Fisker reported earnings per share of negative $0.38, a steeper loss than the negative $0.30 earnings per share that analysts had anticipated.
Another red flag for Fisker's investors came in the form of management's downwardly revised 2023 production forecast. Instead of the 42,400 vehicles that it had originally provided for in its 2023 production forecast, management now expects production volume to fall between 32,000 units and 36,000 units.
And it's not as if management is even confident about the updated range. In the press release addressing Q1 2023 financial results, management forecast second-quarter 2023 production of 1,400 vehicles to 1,700 vehicles "provided Fisker's suppliers and partners can support this volume and ramp."
Luxury EV manufacturer Lucid reported its Q1 2023 financial results after markets closed yesterday, and investors are expressing their disappointment today. Coming up short of analysts' Q1 2023 sales expectation of $209.9 million, Lucid reported $149.4 million. Similarly, the company failed to meet earnings expectations, reporting a loss per share of $0.43, which was lower than the analysts' estimate of a $0.41 loss per share.
While Lucid didn't slash its production forecast like Fisker did, it also didn't provide guidance that revved up the bulls' excitement. Management reaffirmed its 2023 production guidance of "over 10,000" units, consistent with the guidance -- 10,000 to 14,000 vehicles -- that it provided in the Q4 2022 earnings report, which proved uninspiring.
Another factor motivating investors to click the sell button today is a wave of bearish sentiment from analysts regarding the stock. Needham, for example, cut its price target to $10 from $16, and Cantor Fitzgerald lowered its price target to $10 from $13.
Now what
While analysts' revenue and earnings estimates are worth monitoring, they're not the only things. It's unsurprising that the market is punishing shares of Plug Power today. It has failed to make progress toward a consistent reporting of a gross profit despite its long-standing promise that such a move is imminent.
Expectations had run high with the EV names Fisker and Lucid when they first debuted on public markets. Now, however, the companies are reporting bumps in the road, and investors aren't happy.
