Here's some background information to prepare people for the earnings call today.
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Expect losses: The company expects capital expenditures of about $8 billion through 2023, with some analysts such as BofA Securities’ John Murphy forecasting Rivian won’t turn am operating profit until at least 2025. Rivian last month estimated operational losses of between $745 million and $795 million and a net loss of between $1.21 billion and $1.28 billion. It forecasted its quarterly revenue to be about $1 million.
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Pre-Orders: Rivian disclosed to investors last month that it has a backlog of pre-orders for 55,400 R1T and R1S vehicles from customers in North America and plans to deliver these by the end of 2023.
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Production: The sentiment from analysts is that Rivian needs to ramp up production in a big way.
“Rivian needs to ramp quickly and effectively to materialize as a serious long-term contender. That is, Clark Kent (R.J. Scaringe) needs to emerge from the phone booth as Superman soon to scale Rivian and save the plane,” Baird Equity Research analyst George Gianarikas told investors.
RBC Capital Markets’ Joseph Spak said that “while there will undoubtedly be some hiccups along the way,” he predicted Rivian will hit its production targets, growing at a compound annual rate of 52% by 2030.
“This trial by fire approach can help forge Rivian’s DNA setting it up for future success,” he said in an investor note.
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Products: Whether or not there's going to be another delay or not on models.
“Rivian is still in the early stages of its ramp, and while the company has a team with industry veterans, the supply chain environment remains challenging,” Goldman Sachs’ Mark Delaney wrote in an investor note.
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Ford: Looking at the relationship between Ford and Rivian.
While Rivian has given some earnings and production guidance as part of its IPO, investors will concentrate on any updates or changes to its plans.
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