Tesla Q4 Earnings Beat Estimates, Revenues Decline Y/Y

Tesla TSLA reported fourth-quarter 2025 earnings per share of 50 cents, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 45 cents but decreased from the year-ago figure of 73 cents. Total revenues of $24.9 billion missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $25.14 billion and declined 3% year over year.  

Tesla, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Tesla, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Tesla, Inc. Quote

Key Takeaways

Tesla’s fourth-quarter production totaled 434,358 units (422,652 Model 3/Y and 11,706 other models), which declined 5% year over year and missed our estimate of 462,212 units. The company delivered 418,227 vehicles, which declined 16% year over year and fell short of our estimate of 448,384 units. The Model 3/Y registered deliveries of 406,585 vehicles, which declined 14% year over year and missed our expectation of 430,871 units.

Total automotive revenues of $17.7 billion declined 11% year over year and missed our estimate of $19.3 billion. The reported figure also included $542 million (from the sale of regulatory credits for electric vehicles), which declined 21.7% year over year. Automotive sales, excluding revenues from leasing and regulatory credits, totaled $16.8 billion, which declined 10.2% and missed our projection of $18.5 billion on lower-than-expected deliveries. Automotive gross profit (excluding automotive leasing and regulatory credits) was $2.9 billion. Automotive gross margin was 17.2%, up from 12.8% reported in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Tesla’s operating margin declined 50 basis points year over year to 5.7% in the quarter under review, but topped our estimate of 5.3%.

Energy Generation and Storage revenues amounted to $3.84 billion, which rose 25% year over year and beat our estimate of $3.4 billion. Notably, energy storage deployments totaled 14.2 GWh. Services and Other revenues amounted to $3.4 billion, up 18% year over year. The figure matched our estimate. Tesla ended fourth-quarter 2025 with 77,682 Supercharger connectors.

Financials

Tesla had cash/cash equivalents/investments of $44.1 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025, compared with $36.6 billion as of Dec. 31, 2024. Long-term debt and finance leases, net of the current portion, totaled $6.74 billion, up from $5.75 billion as of Dec. 31, 2024.

Net cash provided by operating activities amounted to $3.81 billion in fourth-quarter 2025, down from $4.81 billion in the year-ago period. Capital expenditure totaled $2.39 billion. Tesla generated free cash flow of $1.42 billion during the reported quarter compared with $2.03 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Tesla’s Zacks Rank & Key Picks

TSLA carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) at present.

Some better-ranked stocks in the auto space are Ford Motor F, REV Group REVG and PHINIA Inc. PHIN, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for F’s 2025 sales implies year-over-year growth of 0.3%. EPS estimate for 2025 and 2026 has improved 5 cents and 6 cents, respectively, in the past seven days.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for REVG’s fiscal 2026 sales and earnings implies year-over-year growth of 8.1% and 37.8%, respectively. EPS estimate for fiscal 2026 and 2027 has improved 20 cents and 26 cents, respectively, in the past 60 days.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PHIN’s 2025 sales and earnings implies year-over-year growth of 1.1% and 33.4%, respectively. The EPS estimate for 2025 has moved north 47 cents in the past 60 days and the same for 2026 has improved 52 cents in the past 30 days.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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