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Tesla Showroom Displays Model Y And Optimus Robot Visual In Shenzhen
(Cheng Xin/Getty Images)

Tesla Q1 earnings and revenue beat Wall Street’s estimates

Tesla reported earnings after the bell Wednesday.

Rani Molla

Tesla reported quarterly earnings that beat analysts’ expectations, which they’d been lowering over the past year as the company’s core automotive business has struggled and its upcoming innovations have been pushed further into the future.

Shares were up 4.4% in after-hours trading following the report before giving up a big chunk of those gains.

The company reported revenue of $22.4 billion (versus a $22.1 billion FactSet analyst consensus estimate) and adjusted earnings per share of $0.41 (compared with Wall Street’s $0.35).

Meanwhile, its free cash flow was $1.4 billion, much better than the $1.5 billion loss the Street expected, as the company contends with lower regulatory credit revenue, ongoing pricing pressure, and burgeoning capital expenditure.


Tesla now expects its 2026 capex to be $25 billion, up from the $20 billion it suggested last quarter.

Analysts have been hoping that growth in the company’s energy generation and storage business would continue to offset its weakening automotive business. Energy segment revenue rose to $2.4 billion (lower than FactSet’s $3.2 billion) while the automotive segment grew to $16.2 billion (compared with the consensus expectation of $14.9 billion).

On the earnings call, investors will be looking beyond near-term financials and toward the moon shot AI and autonomous projects on which Tesla is staking its future. That includes expanding into new markets and removing safety monitors from existing ones. So far, Robotaxi is running in San Francisco, Austin, and on a much smaller scale in Dallas and Houston, and safety monitors still attend a vast majority of its rides. Investors will also be looking for any incremental news on Optimus robot and AI chip progress.

Of course, Tesla’s automotive business remains its main source of revenue and the major mechanism with which it finances those forward-looking ambitions.

In the earnings release, Tesla said that “over time, we expect our hardware-related profits to be accompanied by an acceleration of AI, software and fleet-based profits,” but didn’t give an actual timeline.

More pointedly, the company noted that it would begin working on its large-scale Optimus factory this quarter, which is “designed for 1 million robots a year” at its location in Fremont, California. Tesla said it’s also working on a second-generation production line at its Texas Gigafactory, which would have “long-term annual production capacity of 10 million robots.”

Of course, CEO Elon Musk had once said the company would churn out a quarter million Cybertrucks per year, only to find tepid demand. Still, an AI robot is presumably more attractive than an “apocalypse-proof” truck.

Prior to the earnings report, Tesla’s stock was down 14% year to date.

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Lululemon’s stretch getting tested: Stock plunges after after outlook is cut

Lululemon shares are down double digits in premarket trading after the company cut its full-year sales and profit outlook, overshadowing a Q1 beat and raising fresh concerns about the brand’s turnaround efforts.

The company now expects fiscal 2026 revenue to be flat to down 1%, compared with its prior forecast for 2% to 4% growth. Guidance for full-year diluted earnings per share was dragged down to a range of $10.95 to $11.15, below the company’s previous guidance of $12.10 to $12.30 and well below Wall Street’s estimate of $13.26.

Key numbers for Q1:

  • EPS of $1.69 vs. the $1.68 expected.

  • Revenue of $2.47 billion vs. the $2.43 billion expected.

The modest top-line beat masked a widening divergence between Lululemons geographic markets. While international revenue rose 22% overall with a 30% increase in Mainland China, the bigger problem remains North America, where revenue fell 5%.

Interim co-CEO and CFO Meghan Frank acknowledged during the earnings call that recent product rollouts underperformed. A highly anticipated yoga campaign failed to generate its expected halo effect across broader product lines.

Profitability metrics took a major hit, with gross margins contracting by 410 basis points to 54.2% due to mounting tariff costs and promotional markdowns. Operating income consequently fell 37% year over year to $276.9 million.

“We experienced spikes of negative commentary in the media and on social channels with regard to our brand, which had an impact on traffic and overall top-line performance,” Frank said during the earnings call. “And second, not all of our product launches have met our expectations. While we have had several successful launches so far this year, we have seen others as we start Q2 not generate the anticipated guest response.”

Lululemons valuation has already been steadily compressing for years. While it was once one of retails richly valued stocks, investors have been questioning whether the company can return to the double-digit growth era.

The results also arrive during a leadership transition. Lululemon announced back in April that former Nike executive Heidi ONeill is set to take over as CEO in September, with investors looking to her to revive growth in North America and restore the brands growth.

As Lululemon faces both macroeconomic pressure and brand-specific challenges, its stock has dropped around 40% year to date.

markets

US job growth skyrocketed in May, blasting past expectations

The US economy added 172,000 jobs in the month of May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, sending 10-year Treasury yields higher.

The strong May job market surprised economists. Experts had predicted only 85,000 new jobs — just half the reported number. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%, as expected.

The job growth story is a hopeful spot for the economy as consumers continue to feel inflationary pressure from the Iran war.

Job gains were buoyed by the leisure and hospitality sector, which added 70,000 jobs, as well as local government, healthcare, and education.

Both the March and April jobs reports were revised upward, making them collectively 93,000 higher than previously reported.

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