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Courtesy Rivian
If we learned anything from
Rivian Automotive
earnings and the reaction of the stock, it’s that the company’s production ramp-up isn’t happening fast enough for the market. Wall Street analysts have their concerns too, but they still like the stock—a lot. The Street is sticking with its Buy call, even though they are revisiting what shares are worth.
Rivian (ticker: RIVN) reported a wider loss from fewer sales than expected for the fourth quarter of 2021. Sales and earnings don’t matter for that period don’t matter all that much though. Rivian just started to deliver vehicles.
The outlook for 2022 is the bigger deal. Rivian told investors Thursday evening it plans to make about 25,000 vehicles this year. Wall Street was hoping for closer to 40,000. Shares are down 8.6% in premarket trading after that revelation.
S&P 500
and
Dow Jones Industrial Average
futures are up 1.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
Management blamed supply-chain problems and parts shortages for the slower than expected production ramp. Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter is buying that explanation and kept his Buy rating on shares, noting that reservations and backlog still look strong. Rivian has roughly 83,000 truck reservations and an order for 100,000 delivery vans from
Amazon.com
(AMZN).
Potter did lower his price target to $130 from $148 a share though.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives feels similarly about the quarter: It wasn’t great news, but he still likes the stock. “Since its IPO in late 2021…
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