Electric-car company Lucid Group (LCID 4.89%) announced this morning that its chief financial officer Sherry House is resigning, effective immediately. Lucid stock fell 9% -- also immediately -- through 10:30 a.m. ET Tuesday morning.
NASDAQ: LCID
Key Data Points
So long, CFO
Investors are probably right to be concerned. On the one hand, Lucid did its best to frame the CFO's departure in the best possible light in its press release. It included a quote from Ms. House expressing "confiden[ce] in Lucid's future," alongside a note from CEO Peter Rawlinson highlighting House's role in "Lucid's public listing in 2021, the production and delivery of Lucid Air, and the recent unveiling of Lucid Gravity." He implied that now that these tasks have been accomplished, House's work at Lucid is drawing to a sort of natural conclusion.
The company also noted that House "will be available in an advisory role through December 31, 2023 to assist in the transition of her duties," while Principal Accounting Officer Gagan Dhingra steps into the role of interim CFO.
On the other hand, 19 days is not a very long transition period, and being "available" doesn't have quite the same ring to it as confirming that House will continue working with Lucid during the transition period. To the contrary, the departure actually seems abrupt: (1) It's effective immediately; (2) Lucid clearly didn't have another CFO candidate lined up to take over before this happened; and (3) The explanation for the departure was vague ("to pursue other opportunities").
Is Lucid stock a sell?
Plus, let's not ignore the elephant in the room: Lucid's finances, for which House will no longer be responsible, aren't looking in great shape.
This electric-car company has never earned money (and is still unprofitable today, losing $2.6 billion over the last 12 months). It's burning cash even faster than it loses money -- $3.6 billion in negative free cash flow over the last 12 months. And let's not forget that Lucid has only $2 billion net of cash on its balance sheet.
In addition, Lucid just finished cutting production guidance for the second time this year to a range of from 8,000 to 8,500 automobiles -- barely half the high end of its guidance at the start of the year. This was an intentional cut "to prudently align [production] with deliveries," which suggests demand for Lucid EVs isn't exactly red hot right now -- and there's no point making EVs that no one wants to buy.
Things aren't going great for Lucid, and that may be the real reason its CFO is jumping ship.
