Investors will be looking for strong fourth-quarter profit margins along with solid short and long-term guidance from Rivian when the electric vehicle start-upreportsresults on Thursday afternoon.

A Rivian R1T electric pickup up truck in San Francisco. Vehicles built on the company’s second vehicle platform, called R2, are expected to hit roads in 2026.

Wall Street expects fourth-quarter sales of $1.5 billion, up from $1.3 billion reported in 2023.

Margins will be more important than sales, though. Rivian hasn’t produced a positive quarterly gross profit margin as a public company, but that’s expected to change. Wall Street projects a gross profit of $64 million. The positive number is a culmination of Rivian’s sales growth and cost-cutting actions.

Hitting the consensus number would work out to a gross profit per vehicle of about $4,500. Rivian delivered 14,183 cars in the final quarter of 2024, up from 13,972 a year ago when gross profit per vehicle was closer to a loss of $43,000.

Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska called fourth-quarter gross profit one of the key items to watch in a preview report. News about the company’s second vehicle platform, called R2 and due in 2026, is another watch item for him.

R2 vehicles will be lower in price than the R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV. Cheaper cars are key to expanding Rivian’s addressable market.

“Without the R2 there is no story,” added Roeska. “Any material delay to the launch schedule, soft pre-orders, or pricing headwinds are clear negatives for the stock.”

He rates shares Sell and has a $6.10 price target.

Along with margins and R2, investors will be looking for 2025 sales and production guidance. Rivian produced 49,476 vehicles in 2024 and delivered 51,579. Wall Street is looking for 2025 procduction of about 56,000 and sales of about 55,000 vehicles.

Following earnings, investors would brace for volatility. Options markets imply shares will move about 13% up or down following earnings. The stock moved about 9% on average after the past four reports. Shares have gained twice and fallen twice over that span.

Coming into Thursday trading, shares were down about 13% over the past 12 months, trailing the S&P 500 by about 36 percentage points.

Slowing EV sales growth, the potential for President Donald Trump to eliminate some EV subsidies, and new tariffs, which can raise Rivian’s costs, have all weighed on investor sentiment.