In the first quarter of 2024 Tesla sales and adjusted earnings per share that were below analysts' expectations. Turnover amounted to 21.3 billion dollars, which was around 1 billion dollars less than expected. Adjusted earnings per share were 0.45 dollars, compared to the expected 0.50 dollars. Tesla The company attributed the 9 percent decline in sales compared to the previous year to lower sales prices and negative currency effects. Operating profit fell by 56 percent to 1.2 billion dollars, mainly due to expenditure on research and development and the ramp-up of the Cybertruck.
Although Tesla's cash and cash equivalents declined for the first time in many quarters and operating cash inflow decreased, the share price rose by around 8 percent following the publication of the report. This was largely due to the outlook from Tesla announcing the early introduction of new electric cars. Although CEO Elon Musk did not reveal many details about these plans in the subsequent conference call, his mere mention caused the share price to rise further.
Tesla Musk updated his plans and announced that he would be launching new models on the market before the second half of 2025. These new electric cars will be produced on the same production lines as the current models and will use both current and next-generation elements. This has led to a further increase in Tesla-share price by up to 7 percent after the publication of the report and by a further 12 percent during the conference call.
Musk also mentioned the possibility of a share buyback if cash flow becomes strongly positive again and expressed optimism about autonomous driving. However, he avoided questions about product planning, particularly the Robotaxi, but referred to it as a "cybercab" and emphasized Tesla's role as an AI and robotics company. Overall, his presentation came across as convincing, which led to a further increase in the Tesla-share price by 10 percent before the US opening the next day.