Shares of Chinese electric vehicle maker Li Auto (02015) plummeted nearly 11% on Thursday, November 1st, following the company's third-quarter earnings report that fell short of expectations and raised concerns about intensifying competition in the Chinese EV market.
Despite reporting a 24% increase in revenue to 42.87 billion yuan ($6.02 billion) for the quarter, Li Auto's net profit slipped 0.3% to 2.81 billion yuan ($395 million). The company cited intense price competition and lower average selling prices as factors that pressured its gross margins, which declined to 21.5% from 22% a year earlier.
Analysts at Citi Research maintained a "neutral" rating on Li Auto, calling the company's fourth-quarter sales guidance "soft" and noting that it underperformed peers in terms of order-to-sales ratio. For the fourth quarter, Li Auto expects to deliver between 160,000 and 170,000 vehicles, representing a year-over-year increase of 21.4% to 29%, and forecasted revenue in the range of 43.2 billion to 45.9 billion yuan, up 3.5% to 10% from a year ago.
