Tesla Profit Falls 43% Even as Deliveries and Revenue Hold Up

Tesla reported a 43 percent drop in third-quarter net income Wednesday, even as revenue held roughly flat and vehicle deliveries rose from a year earlier, a split result that sent shares down more than 3 percent in after-hours trading. The results, released after markets closed, showed total revenue of about $28.05 billion for the quarter ended September 30, close to analyst estimates of roughly $27.9 billion to $28.06 billion compiled by various Wall Street desks.

GAAP net income attributable to common stockholders came in at $787 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, down from $1.37 billion a year earlier, according to Tesla's quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Adjusted earnings, which exclude stock-based compensation and other items, came to $0.48 per share, ahead of the roughly $0.43 consensus estimate tracked by analysts.

Deliveries up, margins under pressure

The company had already disclosed its delivery figures earlier in the month: 486,532 vehicles delivered and 464,391 produced during the quarter, alongside 13.7 gigawatt-hours of energy storage deployments, figures that came in ahead of what some analysts had modeled. The revenue breakdown showed the growth was uneven: core automotive revenue slipped amid continued price competition in the electric-vehicle market, services and other revenue rose about a third from a year earlier, and energy generation and storage revenue fell as the comparison period a year ago had included unusually strong storage sales.

The profit decline reflects a combination of thinner vehicle margins, reduced revenue from selling regulatory emissions credits to other automakers, and continued heavy spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure, autonomous-driving development and the company's Optimus robotics program.

Investors focus on what comes next

Coverage from CNBC and Electrek both noted that Tesla's automotive gross margin showed signs of stabilizing from earlier in the year, even as the bottom line shrank, and that management's commentary on the earnings call centered on the robotaxi program's expansion and progress on humanoid robot production rather than on the quarter's profit shortfall. Tesla shares were down roughly 14 percent year-to-date heading into the report, according to CNBC's tracking.