BofA On Lucid Earnings, Lowered Outlook Is 'Somewhat Surprising In Magnitude'

Lucid Group Inc LCID reported its fourth-quarter results marginally ahead of expectations on lower operating expenditures, according to BofA Securities.

The Lucid Group Analyst: John Murphy maintained a Buy rating on Lucid Group, with an unchanged price target of $60.

The Lucid Group Thesis: While the company reported good results for the quarter, it “refrained from providing any updates to its near- or longer-term financial targets,” Murphy said in the note.

Management did mention that reservations for Lucid Air are now 25,000, versus a little over 17,000 at its December update, “which amounts to an order book of over $2.4bn, and was encouraging,” the analyst mentioned.

“However, LCID did update its outlook for production in 2022, specifically lowering it from 20k units to 12k-14k, which was not entirely unexpected directionally, but somewhat surprising in magnitude,” he added.

Lucid Group signed agreements to lay the groundwork for a production facility in Saudi Arabia. “Capacity from this facility is targeted to be 150k vehicles per annum, initially to fulfill the Saudi Arabia market demand, but eventually to export to other global markets, and construction is targeted to commence in 1H:22,” Murphy further wrote.

LCID Price Action: Shares of Lucid Group had declined by 14.96% to $24.64 at the time of publication Tuesday.

Photo: Courtesy of lucidmotors.com