Tesla Again Topped Analyst Expectations but Stock Fell Due to Supply Shortage Concerns and Poor Market Sentiment

After the bell on Wednesday, right after Fed voiced its no change interest rate decision, investors received long-awaited Q4 2021 results from Tesla (TSLA). Quite remarkably, the legendary company again dealt with high expectations after delivering more than 308,000 vehicles, its quarterly record. When the headlines came out, Tesla's results were mostly in-line, but the stock remained well off its highs apparently being mostly hurt by recent market weakness causing erratic performance of high growth names. More details to follow.

Tesla did report a record cash flow of nearly $2.8 billion. Tesla also topped general estimates with revenue growth of 65% YoY to $17.7 billion. The company boasted by continuing earnings growth up to $2.3 billion in GAAP during the quarter and $2.9 billion in non-GAAP net income. The operating margin was 14.7% of sales to improve from last quarter while again topping most analyst expectations. Automotive gross margin came in at 30.8% vs. 30.5% last quarter and the consensus figure of 29.9%.

So why did this stock fail to impress after such flawlessly perfect numbers? The EV giant may have rattled investors by nothing more than the news that its factories have been running below capacity for several quarters naming the supply chain issues the main performance aggravating factor. That annoying headwind is seen continuing in 2022. In the meantime, the company reported being able to produce in Q4 some 305,840 electric vehicles (+70% YoY) and delivered 308,650 vehicles (+71%). So far so good!