Q1 revenue comes in slightly ahead of consensus.
Shares of Rivian Automotive Inc. fell more than 6% in the extended session Tuesday after the EV maker posted mixed quarterly results, reporting a wider-than-expected loss but revenue above Wall Street's expectations.
Tuesday's results "set a strong foundation to the remainder of the year," Chief Executive RJ Scaringe said on a call after the results.
Rivian executives also reaffirmed the company's production guidance for the year, announced pared capital expenditures and reiterated that they expect to reach positive gross profit in the fourth quarter.
Rivian $(RIVN)$ lost $1.45 billion, or $1.48 a share, in the first quarter, compared with a loss of $1.35 billion, or $1.45 a share, in the year-ago quarter.
Adjusted for one-time items, Rivian lost $1.24 a share. That compares with FactSet consensus of an adjusted loss of $1.15 a share.
Revenue rose to $1.2 billion, from $661 million a year ago, mostly as the EV maker delivered 13,588 vehicles in the quarter. Revenue from the sale of regulatory credits were minimal, the company said.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected the EV maker to report revenue of $1.17 billion.
Rivian's mixed results were mostly due to its planned April factory shutdown for retooling, Jordan Levy with Truist said in a note late Tuesday.
"Ultimately, while the company's reiterated guidance should give investors some confidence in the anticipated post-shutdown margin uptick, we expect the margin impacts seen in [the first quarter] to continue through at least the current quarter," Levy said.
Rivian reported a gross loss per vehicle of about $39,000, an improvement over the $43,000 gross loss per vehicle in the fourth quarter and the $67,000 gross loss per vehicle in the first quarter of 2023.
"We continue to move closer to making money on every vehicle we sell," Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough said on the call. Rivian expects "meaningful improvement" in gross profit during the second half of this year, culminating in positive gross profit in the fourth quarter.
The EV maker in March unveiled three next-generation vehicles, and crucially told Wall Street they would be built at Rivian's existing factory in Normal, Ill.
The company reaffirmed the 2024 guidance it provided earlier this year of producing 57,000 EVs and an Ebitda loss of $2.7 billion.
While the broader vehicle market is still "experiencing challenges," Rivian is confident it can meet that delivery target, Scaringe said.
Rivian cut down on its capital-expenditure budget required to launch R2 to $1.2 billion, a reduction of $550 million.
That cash-conservation move won praise from investors, and Rivian also said at the time it was pausing construction of its $5 billion plant in Georgia.
Rivian last week said it got more than $800 million in incentives from Illinois to expand the Normal plant.
