Deutsche Bank analysts told investors in a note that Nio Inc (NYSE:NIO) reported "soft underlying Q1 results" on Friday.
The Chinese electric vehicle company posted a first-quarter loss of RMB 2.51 (RMB 1 = $0.1403) per share, RMB 0.12 better than the analyst estimate of an RMB 2.63 loss per share. Revenue came in at RMB 10.68 billion versus the consensus estimate of RMB 11.93 billion, while the company delivered 31,041 vehicles during the quarter.
"NIO reported soft underlying 1Q results, largely as previewed but showed surprising opex discipline to start the year, and also initiated a better than feared 2Q volume outlook," wrote the analysts, who maintained a Buy rating and $13 price target on the stock.
"Management provided a stronger than expected outlook for 2Q23, calling for 23,000-25,000 deliveries. This compares to our 23,000 unit forecast and suggests June will be up materially QoQ (~11,000 at mid-point vs. just 6,155 in May) as the new ES6 ramps up quickly," they added.
The analysts noted that NIO management is targeting more than 20,000 deliveries per month in the second half, including 10,000 new ES6s in July.
"This will likely be difficult to achieve (sustain at least), in our view, given underperformance of the sedans (ET5, ET7), and we don't think management will get credit for this," said the analysts.