Rivian Automotive lowered its profit forecast for the year after missing Wall Street's expectations for the third quarter, including a significant decline in sales.
Here is the company's performance in the quarter compared to LSEG's average estimates:
- Loss per share: 99 cents adjusted vs. a Loss of 92 cents expected
- Revenue: $874 million versus expected $990 million
Rivian said it now expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to be between a loss of $2.83 billion and a loss of $2.88 billion. In comparison, an earlier forecast was for a loss of around $2.7 billion.
But Rivian on Thursday reaffirmed its plans to post a “modestly positive gross profit” in the fourth quarter of this year, which is being closely watched by Wall Street.
“Our primary focus is increasing profitability,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe told CNBC's Phil LeBeau on Thursday. “Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, we continue to focus on the gross margin.”
The company reported negative third-quarter gross profit of $392 million, compared with a loss of $477 million a year earlier.
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Shares of electric vehicle manufacturers Rivian, Lucid and Tesla in 2024.
Rivian shares rose about 2% in after-hours trading Thursday after initially falling. The stock closed Thursday at $10.05, up 3.5%.
Tom Narayan, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said the company's retention of its gross profit target should benefit the stock: “Many analysts we spoke to in the release thought the company might withdraw that target. On this basis, we could expect a higher share price,” he said in an investor note on Thursday.
The automaker's net loss narrowed to $1.1 billion year-over-year, compared with $1.37 billion in the third quarter of 2023. Its revenue, including $8 million from the sale of regulatory credits, fell compared to Last year by 34.6% as supply disruptions affected the company's production.
“This was a difficult quarter for us,” Scaringe told investors Thursday about the supplier issues. “We view this as a short-term issue.”
Because of the disruption, Rivian last month cut its annual production forecast to between 47,000 and 49,000 units from 57,000 units. This range was confirmed again on Thursday.
The supply disruptions came as the automaker tried to bring its second-generation “R1” vehicles to market. The redesigns for the 2025 model year included significant changes to the vehicle's interior parts.
Separate from third-quarter results, Rivian announced Thursday a “key strategic partnership” with LG Energy Solution to supply U.S.-made battery cells for the company's upcoming R2 vehicles in 2026.
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