We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
You are being directed to ZacksTrade, a division of LBMZ Securities and licensed broker-dealer. ZacksTrade and Zacks.com are separate companies. The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security. ZacksTrade does not endorse or adopt any particular investment strategy, any analyst opinion/rating/report or any approach to evaluating individual securities.
If you wish to go to ZacksTrade, click OK. If you do not, click Cancel.
Tesla (TSLA - Free Report) has electrified the late trading markets today following its Q3 2018 earnings release after today's closing bell. Earnings of +$2.90 per share simply obliterated expectations of a loss of 53 cents for the quarter. Sales of $6.82 billion, an all-time high for the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company, rose 128% year over year, and well above the $5.67 billion analysts had been looking for.
Strength in delivery of its Model 3 -- from just under 41K units delivered a quarter ago to nearly 70K in the September quarter -- spurred Tesla in its letter to shareholders. This helped push Auto Gross Margins to 26%, freeing up cash flow of $881 million, with $731 million in cash and equivalents.
Even more impressive, Tesla has been a company under fire in recent months for CEO Elon Musk's erratic behavior, finally resulting in an SEC agreement whereby Musk stepped down as Chairman of the company he founded. Tesla had also missed earnings estimates 8 times in its past 14 quarters. But now the smoke looks to have cleared; shares of TSLA are up 8.5% in after-hours trading.
Zacks Strategist David Borun has been following Tesla closely for months now, and his hot-take on the earnings release today was that the strength in the company's quarter is completely warranted:
"There's nothing funny. They didn't even sell any ZEV credits or anything shady like that. They just sold lots of cars and made money on them, just like a normal business.
"Instead of the production cost of Model 3s going up during the quarter, labor costs per vehicle actually decreased 30%.
"The only even remotely negative item is the mention of 40% tariffs in China, although this didn't significantly affect Model S and X deliveries there during the quarter."
In quoting the letter to shareholders, Borun pointed out, "Demand in china remains challenging... we managed to offset the decline there with growth in North America and Europe."
Unfortunately for investors today who've endured another difficult regular trading session with indexes awash in red ink, Microsoft's (MSFT - Free Report) fiscal Q1 earnings release was not enough to turn things around in the after-market. Although earnings of $1.14 per share represented a 19% positive surprise from the Zacks consensus and up 36% year over year. Revenues of $29.08 billion also topped expectations and grew 19% from fiscal Q1 2018.
This marks the fifth straight quarter without an earnings miss for the Zacks Rank #2 (Buy)-rated tech giant. Its high-growth Azure server business grew 76%, helping bring the server products sector overall up 28% year over year. Dynamics products and cloud services rose 20%, led by 51% revenue growth in the quarter. The company's LinkedIn segment grew 33% from a year ago. Microsoft will provide full-year guidance on its upcoming conference call. For more on MSFT's Earnings, click here.
Today’s Stocks from Zacks’ Hottest Strategies
It's hard to believe, even for us at Zacks. But while the market gained +21.9% in 2017, our top stock-picking screens have returned +115.0%, +109.3%, +104.9%, +98.6%, and +67.1%.
And this outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. Over the years it has been remarkably consistent. From 2000 - 2017, the composite yearly average gain for these strategies has beaten the market more than 19X over. Maybe even more remarkable is the fact that we're willing to share their latest stocks with you without cost or obligation.
Image: Bigstock
Tesla Electrifies in Q3, Microsoft Also Beats
Tesla (TSLA - Free Report) has electrified the late trading markets today following its Q3 2018 earnings release after today's closing bell. Earnings of +$2.90 per share simply obliterated expectations of a loss of 53 cents for the quarter. Sales of $6.82 billion, an all-time high for the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company, rose 128% year over year, and well above the $5.67 billion analysts had been looking for.
Strength in delivery of its Model 3 -- from just under 41K units delivered a quarter ago to nearly 70K in the September quarter -- spurred Tesla in its letter to shareholders. This helped push Auto Gross Margins to 26%, freeing up cash flow of $881 million, with $731 million in cash and equivalents.
Even more impressive, Tesla has been a company under fire in recent months for CEO Elon Musk's erratic behavior, finally resulting in an SEC agreement whereby Musk stepped down as Chairman of the company he founded. Tesla had also missed earnings estimates 8 times in its past 14 quarters. But now the smoke looks to have cleared; shares of TSLA are up 8.5% in after-hours trading.
Zacks Strategist David Borun has been following Tesla closely for months now, and his hot-take on the earnings release today was that the strength in the company's quarter is completely warranted:
"There's nothing funny. They didn't even sell any ZEV credits or anything shady like that. They just sold lots of cars and made money on them, just like a normal business.
"Instead of the production cost of Model 3s going up during the quarter, labor costs per vehicle actually decreased 30%.
"The only even remotely negative item is the mention of 40% tariffs in China, although this didn't significantly affect Model S and X deliveries there during the quarter."
In quoting the letter to shareholders, Borun pointed out, "Demand in china remains challenging... we managed to offset the decline there with growth in North America and Europe."
Click here for a link to TSLA's earnings.
Unfortunately for investors today who've endured another difficult regular trading session with indexes awash in red ink, Microsoft's (MSFT - Free Report) fiscal Q1 earnings release was not enough to turn things around in the after-market. Although earnings of $1.14 per share represented a 19% positive surprise from the Zacks consensus and up 36% year over year. Revenues of $29.08 billion also topped expectations and grew 19% from fiscal Q1 2018.
This marks the fifth straight quarter without an earnings miss for the Zacks Rank #2 (Buy)-rated tech giant. Its high-growth Azure server business grew 76%, helping bring the server products sector overall up 28% year over year. Dynamics products and cloud services rose 20%, led by 51% revenue growth in the quarter. The company's LinkedIn segment grew 33% from a year ago. Microsoft will provide full-year guidance on its upcoming conference call. For more on MSFT's Earnings, click here.
Today’s Stocks from Zacks’ Hottest Strategies
It's hard to believe, even for us at Zacks. But while the market gained +21.9% in 2017, our top stock-picking screens have returned +115.0%, +109.3%, +104.9%, +98.6%, and +67.1%.
And this outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. Over the years it has been remarkably consistent. From 2000 - 2017, the composite yearly average gain for these strategies has beaten the market more than 19X over. Maybe even more remarkable is the fact that we're willing to share their latest stocks with you without cost or obligation.
See Them Free>>