Nio Stock Earnings: NIO slips 8% on poor Q2 showing but recovers from worse sell-off

Nio (NIO) stock has been recovering from a major gap down on Tuesday's open. Due to poor second-quarter results released early Tuesday, Nio fell as low as $9.46 after the open but has recovered up to $10.05 or -8.1% about 45 minutes into the session.
Nio, the Chinese EV automaker, reported Q2 earnings and revenue that missed analyst expectations for the second quarter. Nio reported adjusted earnings per average diluted share (EPADS) of $-0.45 on revenue of $1.21 billion. Wall Street analysts’ consensus had been EPADS of $-0.41 on revenue of $1.27 billion.
Nio missed revenue and GAAP earnings consensus in the first quarter as well. During that quarter, reported in June, Nio’s revenue of $1.55 billion had missed expectations by about $80 million.
Revenue fell 15% YoY as vehicle deliveries, vehicle sales and margin all slipped. Deliveries in the quarter dropped 6% YoY to 23,520. Vehicle sales plunged 25% to $991 million. Vehicle margin declined from 16.7% one year ago to 6.7%, although that figure was better than Q1’s 5.1%.
Part of this slide in margin can be attributed to customers opting for less pricey sedans rather than SUVs. Deliveries of SUVs fell 23% YoY, while sedan deliveries grew nearly 14%. Vehicle margin dropped drastically during Q4 of last year when SUV sales began dropping off precipitously.
SUV deliveries were reported at 13,595 in Q2 2022 but just 10,492 in the current second quarter. Sedan deliveries rose from 11,464 in the quarter last year to 13,028 this year.
NIO SUV/Sedan deliveries by quarter
An important caveat here is that Nio’s second quarter ended on June 30, and the following month of July saw deliveries of 20,462 that nearly overtook the entirety of the second quarter. While Q2 was a bust, the third quarter looks quite promising. Management is guiding for deliveries between 55,000 and 57,000 in Q3, which is an increase of about 150% from the second quarter.
July’s large-scale increase in deliveries has “propelled Nio to the top position in China's premium electric vehicle market for vehicles priced above RMB300,000,” said CEO and Chairman William Bin Li.
Based on disclosures in the press release, the government of Abu Dhabi – one of the seven members of the United Arab Emirates or UAE – now owns about 7% of Nio. During the second quarter, Abu Dhabi purchased an approximately $739 million stake directly from Nio and about $350 million in common stock from a subsidiary of Tencent (TCEHY).
Nio’s share price has been beset by a dismal second quarter, but opportunistic traders will hope to enter here in order to benefit from third-quarter results. August deliveries, for instance, will likely be reported on either Friday or Monday.
NIO stock has descended back from its early August high just above $16 per share to a former supply/resistance zone ranging from $10.15 to $11.30. This would be a good spot to enter since the projected healthy delivery report for August should see NIO burst up to the $13 to $14 resistance range in short order. A break of $10.15, however, will produce more selling that sends the Nio stock price down to earlier resistance-turned-support at $9.50.
NIO daily chart