Lucid (LCID 5.22%) stock jumped 5.2% in Thursday’s trading, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, and an analyst’s commentary may be part of the reason.
Before the market opened, Morgan Stanley‘s Adam Jonas published a note on the luxury electric vehicle (EV) specialist. The analyst maintained an underweight rating on the company, but he said that tough conditions for the business were already priced into the stock.
Lucid is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings after the market closes on Feb. 21, and Jonas suggests that the stock might not move much lower based on what’s to come in that release or the conference call to follow. The company has already published its vehicle production and delivery numbers for the quarter — and seen sell-offs in conjunction with that report — so he could be on to something.
Is Lucid stock a buy right now?
Lucid produced 8,428 vehicles in 2023’s final quarter. While that was up 17.4% year over year, the increase was unimpressive because the company will need to rapidly build its manufacturing footprint in order to leverage economies of scale. Meanwhile, the EV specialist delivered 6,001 vehicles in Q4 — up 37.4%. Jonas may be right that a lot of bad news and potential unfavorable outcomes may already be priced into Lucid stock, but it is notable that he remained broadly bearish on the stock.
While the analyst’s coverage appears to have helped push the stock higher Thursday, there’s other news that investors should be paying attention to. Lucid announced another round of substantial price cuts. The base models for the Air Pure, Air Touring, and Air Grand Touring will now retail at $69,900, $77,900, and $109,900, respectively. That should help boost sales volume, but the cuts will also result in elevated losses in the near term.
The overall EV market still looks poised for growth over the long term, but demand trends look poised to soften over the next year. Lucid likely felt compelled to cut prices in order to encourage sales.
While the company ended the third quarter with cash and equivalents totaling approximately $4.4 billion, it also recorded a net loss of $752.9 million in the period. If Lucid is going to eventually shift into profitability, it needs to dramatically ramp up vehicle production and deliveries while also maintaining pricing power. It’s possible that the stock will surge above current levels, but it’s a risky bet because the economics of the business aren’t particularly encouraging right now.
Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
