The company said that it had 7,000 new orders for its R1 electric pickup in the last two months, bringing total net orders up to 90,000 vehicles. And it said that despite supply chain problems that have cut its production by 25% since the end of March, it is still on track to build 25,000 vehicles by the end of this year.
And perhaps most assuring to investors, it said it has enough cash on hand — $17 billion — to be able to launch production of its next vehicle, the R2, at a second planned plant in Georgia in 2025 and operate through at least that year.
The company said it had a first quarter operating loss of $1.77 a share, worse than the $1.44 a share forecast by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. Revenue for the startup company was only $95 million, far less than the $130 million forecast.
But the company’s outlook going forward was more important to investors than the quarterly results. Shares of
Rivian initially gained more than 10% in after-hours trading following the report before retreating to about a 4% gain once the company’s call with investors began. Shares of Rivian initially gained more than 10% in after-hours trading following the report.
It’s been a tough run for Rivian shares lately. News that early investor
Ford (F) sold 8 million of the 102 million shares of Rivian stock it held sent
Rivian stock down 21% in trading Monday. Its shares continued to slide another 10% during trading Tuesday and Wednesday to close at a post-IPO low.
Rivian had a
very successful initial public offering in November, raising $12 billion, more than any other IPO since Facebook’s debut in 2012. Its stock continued to climb and within its first week it was the
third most valuable automaker on the planet, trailing only Tesla and
Toyota (TM), even though it had yet to report any sales.
But its first two financial reports in December and March disappointed investors and the stock lost almost all of its early value. Shares Wednesday were down a total of 89% from that post-IPO high.
The drop in stock price during the first three months of the year forced two major early investors,
Ford and
Amazon, to report multi-billion-dollar first-quarter losses because of the drop in value of Rivian’s stock. But both had reported even
larger gains for 2021 when Rivian’s stock had soared, and their
stakes in Rivian are still worth far more than their
initial investments.
The drop in the stock’s value so far this quarter could mean each will report another hit to earnings in the second quarter, unless the after-hours rally in the shares continues.
The R1 pickup won the
MotorTrend truck of the year award at the end of 2021, and Rivian was able to start production before rivals such as
Tesla (TSLA), Ford and
General Motors (GM) were able to begin production of their electric pickups. But it will face increasing competition, most notably from the
Ford F-150 Lightning, the electric version of the best-selling vehicle in the United States, which
began production last month.
