ChargePoint gave weak revenue guidance for the current quarter late Thursday after beating earnings estimates for its fiscal first quarter. CHPT stock tumbled Friday but held above a key level, after surging earlier this week.
"Diversification across verticals and geographies continues to contribute resilience to our business," ChargePoint CEO Pasquale Romano said during an earnings call late Thursday. Strength in the European and fleet markets offset challenges in the North American commercial and residential markets, "due to what we believe is a delay in discretionary purchases" amid macroeconomic headwinds, he added during the call.
ChargePoint is a leading provider of EV charging networks in the U.S. and Europe. Globally, countries are shifting to electric vehicles from gas- and diesel-powered cars.
ChargePoint Earnings
Estimates: In Q1, which ended April 30, analysts expected ChargePoint to narrow losses to 19 cents per share vs. 21 cents a year ago, according to FactSet consensus estimates.
Revenue was seen jumping 57%, year over year, to $128.3 million.
Results: ChargePoint narrowed losses to 15 cents per share, FactSet shows. Revenue jumped 59%, year over year, to $130 million. But that marked the fourth straight quarter of slowing sales growth.
Gross margins increased during the first quarter, the company said. Cash on the balance sheet stood at $313.7 million at the end of April, down from $399.5 million at the end of January.
Costs of providing networked charging systems and subscription services jumped 43% during the quarter. Interest expense also swelled, the earnings release showed.
Outlook: ChargePoint guided Q2 revenue of $148 million-$158 million. The midpoint of $153 million was well below the FactSet consensus estimates of $165.6 million ahead of earnings. Analysts now expect $160.3 million.
For the full year, analysts forecast a net loss of 63 cents a share, FactSet shows. That would mark an improvement from a 68-cent loss per share in fiscal 2023, which ended Jan. 31. Analysts project the first annual profit, of seven cents, in fiscal 2026.
CHPT Stock
Shares of ChargePoint dived 6.9% to 9.07 in big volume on the stock market today, but held above the 50-day moving average. CHPT stock soared 14% Tuesday, regaining the 50-day line for the first time since early March.
On Tuesday, ChargePoint earned an upgrade as a "best-in-class way" to play the EV charging space. "The reason for our upgrade is simple — CHPT has proof of execution (and) line of sight to profitability," Bank of America analyst Alex Vrabel wrote in a note to clients.
CHPT stock is working on a 13.75 cup-shaped buy point, the MarketSmith chart shows. But the stock has no prior uptrend and has been trading below the 200-day line.
On May 19, ChargePoint shares hit a record low of 7.82.
Among other EV charging stocks, EVgo rose 0.5% to 4.03 Friday. Blink Charging fell 0.6% to 6.71.
The EV charging stocks all cratered in the past year, with their 10-week moving averages currently stuck below the 40-week lines. Investors soured on ChargePoint stock and its peers as rising interest rates raised the costs for building out public charging networks.
Dutch oil major Shell, which completed its $169 million purchase of Volta on March 31, gained 2.1% Friday.
On May 26, Tesla and Ford announced an EV charging partnership, in which Ford will use Tesla's Superchargers and adopt its charging standard.
F stock advanced 2.2% Friday, back above the 50-day line. TSLA stock climbed 3.1%, rising for a sixth straight session. TSLA stock topped a buy point. The EV giant's shares are back above the 40-week line for the first time since September. Tesla CEO Elon Musk visited China this week.
Established EV Charging Network
Founded in 2007, ChargePoint operates electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the U.S. and several other countries.
"We emphasize CHPT's scale and diversity as key to our belief in sustainable growth. Anchor positions in both the U.S. and European EV charging market offer an elegant but unconcentrated way to play electrification trends," Bank of America analyst Vrabel said in Tuesday's note.
The analyst advised investors to look past headlines about competition. Tesla already sells adapters allowing its electric vehicles to plug into fast-charging stations run by third-party companies, he said. Those companies include ChargePoint, Volta and Electrify America.
In fact, he expects ChargePoint to benefit "from spillover of TSLA's already congested Supercharger network."
Vrabel upgraded CHPT stock to buy from neutral, but cut his price target to $14 from $15.50.
Year to date, ChargePoint stock is down 4.6%. It has rallied almost 16% from the May 19 low of 7.82.
