By Michael Elkins
Shares of BYD Co (OTC:BYDDY) jumped as much as 7.25% on Tuesday after the Warren Buffet-backed Chinese automaker announced its estimated 3Q numbers and said its third-quarter profit may surge up to 365%.
Results for BYD were better than expected, wrote Citi analysts on Monday. “The earnings beat was attributable to strong EV volume growth…and mix improvements,” they wrote, adding that earnings grew about twice as fast as sales growth.
BYD estimated net profit for the quarter to come in between 5.5 billion yuan and 5.9 billion yuan ($765 million to $820 million) - an increase of 333% to 365% from the same period a year earlier.
According to a stock exchange filing by the company detailing estimated results for the quarter, the sales volume of new energy vehicles at the company reached record highs. Those sales drove a “significant improvement in earnings” and helped relieve “the pressure on earnings brought by the rising prices of upstream raw materials.”
According to the filing, BYD sold 537,164 electric and hybrid cars in the latest three-month period, up 197% from a year earlier. The total comfortably beat Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), though Tesla only sells pure EVs. The EV maker is also set to boost net income in the combined three quarters for the year to 9.5 billion yuan, up as much as 289%, according to the filing.
The electric car manufacturer will continue its overseas expansion, including product launches in India, Thailand, Laos, Mongolia, and Nepal in recent weeks, and a distribution agreement in Malaysia with Sime Darby Motors Sdn Bhd.