Tesla Q3 EPS of $0.48 tops consensus — revenue flat at $28.05B, free cash flow turns positive
Tesla's Q3 adjusted EPS of $0.48 beat consensus (about $0.45) on flat revenue of $28.05B, and free cash flow swung to +$1.53B from −$1.09B in Q2 — but operating income fell 56% year over year.
Tesla's Q3 report (8-K) shows total revenue of $28.05B, non-GAAP diluted EPS of $0.48, GAAP EPS of $0.22 and GAAP net income of $787M. Revenue was essentially flat on the year ($28.1B) and near the ~$28.06B consensus; EPS was down 4% from $0.50 a year ago but above consensus.
Profitability was mixed. Operating income was $718M versus $1,624M a year earlier (−56%), a 2.6% operating margin (5.8% a year ago, 1.4% in Q2). Total gross margin improved to 19.6% from 18.0% a year ago and 16.8% in Q2. Regulatory credit revenue fell to $113M from $417M.
Free cash flow of $1.53B (vs. $3.99B a year ago and −$1.09B in Q2) turned positive, but capex of $4.73B is more than double last year's $2.25B. Cash and investments ended the quarter at $45.4B. Deliveries of 486,532 (−2.1% YoY) beat expectations as previously reported, while energy storage deployments of 13.7GWh missed the ~15.9GWh consensus.
Tesla also cited 1.74 million FSD subscriptions, Optimus production starting in Fremont, and Cybercab joining the Austin Robotaxi fleet. CNBC, Bloomberg, Reuters and WSJ covered the results, which landed amid merger talk with SpaceX.
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