Investing.com-- Hong Kong shares of Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI) Inc (HK:2015) fell on Monday after the electric vehicle maker clocked disappointing quarterly earnings and presented an underwhelming outlook for the current quarter.
The EV maker’s shares sank as much as 7% to HK$105.0, lagging a 1% rise in the Hang Seng index. This followed a 4.3% loss in Li’s American shares on Friday.
Li Auto- which competes with Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) in Chinese markets- projected total revenue of between 23.4 billion yuan and 24.7 billion yuan ($3.2 bln-$3.4 bln), which was softer than street estimates of 33.5 billion yuan.
This came even as the company clocked record-high revenue, of 44.3 billion yuan, for the fourth quarter. But its earnings per share- at 10.04 yuan- retreated from the prior year, amid an ongoing, bitter price war in Chinese markets.
Li’s disappointing outlook sparked several ratings downgrades on the stock. Macquarie cut the stock to Neutral from Outperform and also trimmed its price target, citing doubts over Li’s ability to maintain its earnings growth, especially amid heightened competition.
Nomura also downgraded the stock Neutral from Buy, citing a cautious near-term outlook on the firm amid a host of new upcoming models from its Chinese peers. Li also signaled recently that it will launch two new all-electric SUVs- the Li i8 and the Li i6- later in 2025.
While Li has logged strong sales growth in recent years, its margins have been eroded by a bitter price war with its Chinese rivals. But the outlook for Chinese EV makers is expected to improve as Beijing prepares more subsidies to boost consumption.
Shares of Chinese rivals including BYD Co (HK:1211), NIO Inc (HK:9866), and Xpeng (NYSE:XPEV) Inc (HK:9868), rose as much as 3.7% on Monday.