Al Root

ChargePoint reported better-than-expected third-quarter sales, sending shares higher early Thursday.

The electric vehicle charging equipment maker reported an Ebitda loss of $28.6 million from sales of $100 million on Wednesday evening. (Ebitda is short for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.) Wall Street was looking for a loss of $33.3 million from sales of $90 million.

ChargePoint stock was up 11.5% in premarket trading at $1.36 a share while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were both flat.

ChargePoint is still a relatively new company that isn't profitable. Sales matter more than earnings at this point. Sales a year ago came in at $110 million, so things got worse. Still, ChargePoint stock has been badly beaten up.

Coming into Thursday trading, ChargePoint stock was down about 48% so far this year and down about 12% since the Nov. 5 election. Wall Street believes President-elect Donald Trump's policies -- such as ending $7,500 EV purchase tax credits -- will slow the adoption of EVs in America. Fewer EVs mean less charging business for ChargePoint.

Along with the starting point, ChargePoint's guidance is helping. Fourth-quarter sales are expected to be $95 million to $105 million. The $100 midpoint is close to the $102 million Wall Street expects.

It is, of course, a little lower, but guidance for the third quarter was about $90 million and ChargePoint beat that by about $10 million.

"Our third-quarter results exceeded our expectations, and demonstrate that our strategy, focus on operational excellence, and rigorous cash management are translating to tangible results," said CEO Rick Wilmer in a news release.

The company ended the quarter with about $220 million on its balance sheet. It also has an undrawn $150 million credit revolver.

Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch called the quarter "solid progress" in a Thursday report. He rates shares Hold and doesn't have a price target for the stock. J.P. Morgan analyst Bill Peterson rates shares Sell. He doesn't have a price target either.

Peterson noted that costs are coming down and that revenue growth "could resume" at some point next year. He remains concerned, however, about the pace of EV sales growth during a second Trump presidential term.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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December 05, 2024 08:11 ET (13:11 GMT)

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