By Michael Elkins
Truist Securities reiterated a Buy rating on Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN) and cut the company’s price target to $50.00 (from $65.00) following the electric vehicle maker’s 4Q production and delivery miss.
Rivian reported the 4Q production of 10,020 vehicles, coming in short of the street’s estimated 10,892. Deliveries were reported at 8,054 vehicles, also short of the street at 8,713. While RIVN fell just short of its 2022 production target, analysts expect much of the miss to already be priced into shares which fell 6% on Tuesday as Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) weaker-than-expected 4Q deliveries drove down the group.
They wrote in a note “While RIVN's 4Q numbers fell short of street forecasts, we believe that production/deliveries are directionally on-track to achieve our 2023 forecasts. Importantly, we would not attribute any of the shortfall to demand given Rivian's significant order backlog and see the lower production largely as a result of delays from lack of semiconductor availability previously discussed by the company.”
Truist adjusted their estimates to reflect preliminary 4Q production/delivery numbers. While go-forward production/delivery estimates remain unchanged, a reduction in 4Q/2023 ASP estimates causes Truist to reduce FY23E revenues to ~$5.3 billion (street $5.3B).
Shares of RIVN are down 0.98% in pre-market trading on Wednesday.