Li Auto Q1: The King of New Forces in Car Manufacturing！

Just now, Li Auto $Li Auto(LI)$ released its first quarter results, and its stock price jumped 7% in the premarket moments, giving a perfect explanation for the results:

Specifically, the revenue of Li Auto in the first quarter was 18.787 billion yuan, slightly exceeding the consensus forecast of 18.68 billion by analysts. What is surprising is that the company adjusted net income is 1.4 billion yuan, which greatly exceeds the analyst expectation of 660 million yuan:

The financial report of new energy vehicles is actually relatively boring. The main influence on the stock price is the monthly sales volume, and the revenue and profit are the final reaction of the sales data.

In terms of monthly sales, Li Auto hit record highs, with total sales of 52584 vehicles in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 65.8% over the same period last year:

Compared with the monthly sales of NIO $NIO Inc.(NIO)$ $NIO Inc.(NIO.SI)$ $NIO-SW(09866)$ and XPEV $XPeng Inc.(XPEV)$ , Li Auto is definitely the king of the new forces of car manufacturing!

The following picture shows NIO' monthly sales :

The following picture shows XPEV's monthly sales:

The revenue of Li Auto in the first quarter was 18.787 billion yuan, up 96.5% from the same period last year, much higher than the 65.8% growth rate of car sales. It mainly due to the higher price of new models, such as the L9 selling price of about 460k yaun, which is much higher than the price of the Li One of the first model.

In terms of Gross margin, it was 20.4% in the first quarter, down from 22.6% in the same period last year, but higher than 20.2% in the fourth quarter of last year:

The year-on-year decline in Gross margin was mainly due to a sharp drop in gross margin from 22.4% in the same period last year to 19.8%. The company explained that it was due to differences in product mix, but in fact, product prices increased, so the decline in gross margin should be caused by competition, especially the price war started by Tesla $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$ at the end of last year.

At present, the gross margins of Tesla, BYD $BYD COMPANY(01211)$ $BYD Co., Ltd.(BYDDY)$ and Li Auto have all declined in the first quarter:

Let me explain, BYD's gross margin in the first quarter increased significantly compared with the same period last year, mainly because its sales were relatively low then, while sales in the first quarter of this year has been the world's first new energy cars, and the scale effect increased greatly. With the sharp rise in gross margin, compared with the fourth quarter of last year, BYD's gross margin also declined significantly.

Although the gross margin has declined, thanks to the economies of scale generated by the surge in deliveries, Li Auto net income for the first quarter reached 900 million yuan, the best record in history:

In addition to income, Li Auto cash flow is very strong, with net cash from operating activities of 7.78 billion yuan ($1.13 billion) in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 324.3% from 1.83 billion yuan in operating activities in the first quarter of 2022. Free cash flow was 6.7 billion yuan, compared with 500 million yuan in the same period last year.

By the end of the first quarter, Li Auto cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, term deposits and short-term investments are 65 billion yuan. Abundant cash lays a solid foundation for future competition.

In addition to the better-than-expected results in the first quarter, Li Auto's second-quarter sales guidance is also good, of which vehicle delivery is expected to be 76000 to 81000, an increase of 164.9% to 182.4% over the second quarter of 2022, and the market is expected to be 73106.

Total revenue was 24.22 billion yuan ($3.53 billion) to 25.86 billion yuan ($3.77 billion), an increase of 177.4% to 196.1% over the second quarter of 2022, with market estimates of 22.45 billion.

Under the rapid growth of performance, Li Auto valuation of market-to-sales ratio is still lower than that of Tesla:

Is the Li Auto the return of the king in terms of stock prices?