BYD tops the electric vehicle king! Quarterly revenue surpasses Tesla for the first time | Financial report insights

Supported by strong sales, BYD's revenue in the third quarter surpassed Tesla, boldly claiming the title of the world's electric vehicle king.

On the evening of the 30th, BYD announced its financial report for the third quarter of 2024. The results showed:

BYD achieved an operating revenue of 201.125 billion yuan in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 24.04%, marking the first time it has surpassed Tesla (which had a third-quarter revenue of USD 25.18 billion, approximately 179.35 billion yuan); market expectations were for revenue of 204.8 billion yuan.

The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company in the third quarter was 11.607 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.47%; basic earnings per share were 4 yuan/share, an increase of 11.73% year-on-year.

In the first three quarters, revenue reached 502.25 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.94%, with a net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 25.238 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.12%; the net cash flow from operating activities for the first three quarters was 56.273 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 42.5%.

Thanks to stimulus policies such as trade-in programs, BYD has maintained strong sales momentum this year.

According to previously released data, BYD's sales in the third quarter reached 1.1349 million units, a year-on-year increase of 37.7%, exceeding the market expectation of 1.1 million units; cumulative sales for the first three quarters were 2.748 million units, a year-on-year increase of 32.1%.

BYD's Hong Kong stock fell slightly on Wednesday, but has rebounded over 70% since the low in February, with an increase of over 40% this year.

Short Sellers Exit En Masse

It is worth mentioning that before the release of BYD's third-quarter report, short sellers significantly reduced their short bets.

According to data from S&P Global Inc., the short-selling ratio of BYD's Hong Kong stock dropped from 7.7% earlier this year to 0.9% last Friday, close to the lowest level since July 2022. At the same time, the cost of hedging against stock price declines in the options market has also decreased.

Analysts believe that BYD's overseas sales will be key to whether the stock price can continue to rise.

Morgan Stanley's Tim Hsiao and other analysts wrote in a report that they expect investors to gradually shift their focus to BYD's high-end brands and overseas sales to see if they can recover and drive sales and profit growth in the fourth quarter.

BYD's overseas sales in the first nine months of this year were approximately 300,000 units, still some distance from the target of 450,000 units