U.S.-listed shares of XPeng Inc. shook off earlier weakness to rise nearly 1% on Wednesday in the wake of a quarterly miss for the Chinese electric-vehicle maker.
XPeng earlier Wednesday reported a wider third-quarter loss than for the same quarter last year, and revenue that fell short of estimates.
The company’s revenue momentum is likely to be sustained thanks to rising demand for EVs, but as EV penetration accelerates, “we think competition will rise aggressively, given more traditional brands are rapidly rolling out their respective EV models, as well as threats from well-established Chinese EV brands,” CFRA analyst Aaron Ho said in a note Wednesday.
“We expect relatively small players like XPeng to face difficulties in expanding market share organically,” Ho said. “This becomes additionally challenging as industry peers are cutting prices to boost sales volume,” leading CFRA to remain “cautions about XPeng’s liquidity, given the necessity for substantial investments in [research and development] despite the weakening profitability.”
XPeng posted a net loss of 3.89 billion yuan ($530 million), or 4.49 yuan a share, for the quarter, wider than the loss of 2.38 billion yuan, or 2.77 yuan a share, in the year-earlier period.
The company’s adjusted per-share loss came to 3.23 yuan, narrower than the FactSet consensus of a loss of 3.40 yuan.
Revenue rose to 8.53 billion yuan from 6.82 billion yuan, below the FactSet consensus of 8.68 billion yuan.
XPeng delivered 40,008 vehicles in the quarter, up 72.4% from the second quarter. The company delivered another 20,002 vehicles in October to bring the year-to-date total to 101,445 vehicles.
XPeng said it is now expecting fourth-quarter deliveries of 59,500 to 63,500 vehicles, an increase of 101.2% to 114.7% from a year ago. Revenue is expected to be in the range of 12.7 billion to 13.6 billion yuan, while FactSet is expecting 12.2 million yuan.
The stock has gained 72% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX
has gained 17%.
