Earnings Results: Nio forecast disappoints as Chinese electric-car maker faces supply-chain concerns

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Nio Inc. executives suggested Tuesday that growth will be hard to come by in the fourth quarter amid supply-chain issues, and shares slipped in after-hours trading.

Nio
NIO,
-5.93%

executives guided for fourth-quarter vehicle deliveries of 23,500 to 25,500 cars, which suggests roughly flat sales from the record 24,439 the Chinese electric-car company reported Tuesday for the third quarter. Chief Executive William Bin Li referred to “continued supply-chain volatilities” in a statement Tuesday, while guiding for fourth-quarter revenue of $1.45 billion to $1.57 billion, a range wholly lower than the average analyst estimate of $1.69 billion.

Nio has faced production issues that led to a severe downturn in October, when the company delivered fewer than 4,000 vehicles while making changes to manufacturing. In a conference call Tuesday, Bin Li said the supply chain “remains challenging.”

“Our supply-chain team and partners have adopted a series of measures to support the record high quarterly deliveries in the third quarter, and will continue to do so,” he said.

Nio reported a third-quarter loss of $440.6 million, or 28 cents per American depository share, wider than a loss of 15 cents a share a year ago due to a large repurchase of equity from a minority investor. After stripping out that charge as well as stock-based compensation, the loss fell to $88.4 million, or 6 cents per ADS. Revenue rose to $1.53 billion from $692 million a year ago.

Analysts on average expected an adjusted loss of 7 cents a share on sales of $1.44 billion, according to FactSet. Nio stock fell 2.3% in the extended session, which ended as the company’s conference call began.

Nio also disclosed that it has sold slightly more than $1.2 billion worth of stock since launching an at-the-market offering in September. Nio targeted $2 billion for the stock sale when it was announced.

Nio’s U.S.-traded ADSs have declined 16.6% so far this year, as the S&P 500 index
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has gained 24.7%.