$28.24 billion in second-quarter revenue is Tesla's (TSLA) reported figure against a $26.32 billion consensus estimate. The beat is $1.92 billion, 7.3% above the Street's number. A gross margin of 16.8%, reported, against a 19.4% estimate is what follows.
Revenue: the one line that clears the bar
Tesla's Q2 revenue of $28.24 billion cleared the $26.32 billion estimate by $1.92 billion. That is a clean top-line beat. Reported earnings per share were 32 cents, one cent below the 33 cents Tesla generated in the same quarter a year earlier. The 3% YoY compression on the reported EPS line is small; the direction is lower.
Margin miss and adjusted EPS shortfall
Gross margin for the second quarter came in at 16.8% against a 19.4% estimate. The miss is 260 basis points. A $1.92 billion revenue beat did not translate into margin; the cost structure absorbed what the top line produced.
Adjusted EPS was 33 cents against a 51-cent consensus. The miss is 18 cents, 35% below what analysts modeled.
| Metric | Reported | Consensus | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $28.24B | $26.32B | +$1.92B / +7.3% |
| Reported EPS | $0.32 | n/a | -$0.01 / -3% YoY |
| Adjusted EPS | $0.33 | $0.51 | -$0.18 / -35% |
| Gross margin | 16.8% | 19.4% | -260 bps |
What the tape reprices
The revenue beat gets the headline; the margin and earnings lines do the repricing work. Anyone who built a model around 19.4% gross margin and 51-cent adjusted EPS is now on the wrong side of both numbers. The 260-basis-point margin shortfall signals that revenue volume expanded while the economics per dollar of revenue did not hold at the rate analysts assumed. The adjusted EPS miss of 18 cents, at 35% below consensus, is the figure that remakes forward estimates. Tesla's Q2 gross margin of 16.8%, reported, is the number the market works from.