Tesla vehicles parked outside a home with a Tesla Solar Roof on Weems Street in Boca Chica Village, Texas, U.S., on Monday, June 21, 2021.
Veronica G. Cardenas | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Tesla has only installed 3,000 of its Solar Roof systems in the U.S. since touting the technology seven years ago, according to new research from Wood Mackenzie.
That installation rate falls well shy of Tesla’s guidance and ambitions for what it previously called its “solar glass” roof tiles. Wood Mackenzie notes that in late 2019 the company said it was aiming to manufacture 1,000 Solar Roofs weekly, and to install 1,000 per week in the first half of 2020.
The report offers the latest glimpse into Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s struggle to integrate a solar energy business into his electric car company following the 2016 acquisition of SolarCity, a solar installer founded and run by his cousins Peter and Lyndon Rive with his help.
Average weekly Tesla Solar Roof installations reached just 21 in 2022, Wood Mackenzie said. Tesla hit a high of 32 average weekly installations in the U.S. in the first quarter of last year, according to the study.
Musk first promoted a shingle-style solar panel in October 2016, as he was trying to garner shareholder enthusiasm for Tesla’s $2.6 billion purchase of SolarCity. The shingle he showed at a marketing event was not even a working prototype, it was later revealed. Musk had invested significant capital in SolarCity, and served as board chairman while also helming Tesla and SpaceX.
A group of Tesla shareholders eventually sued Tesla and Musk over the deal. Last year, the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled in favor of Musk in a bench trial. But the shareholders’ lawyers on Wednesday made their opening arguments in pursuit of an appeal in Delaware Supreme Court.
Shareholders alleged that Tesla’s SolarCity purchase amounted to a bailout and was pushed by Musk because his personal wealth and reputation were at stake. Musk has denied that he pressured the Tesla board to go through with the SolarCity deal. Had he lost, Musk could have been forced to pay upwards of $2 billion, CNBC previously reported.
While Tesla’s Solar Roof effort has struggled, the company’s traditional solar panels have seen some improved traction in the market.
The traditional solar-panel installations shrank considerably from 2016 to 2020, but volumes have been on the rise along with broader growth in the residential solar industry, Mackenzie Wood researchers told CNBC in an e-mail. Tesla installed traditional solar panel systems with a power generating capacity of 156 megawatts in 2021, and 248 megawatts in 2022, the researchers said.
The 3,000 Solar Roof systems that are installed in the U.S. have an estimated capacity of around 30 megawatts.
While Tesla intended to manufacture all of its solar roof tiles initially, it has instead procured photovoltaic glass from Chinese supplier, Almaden. Residential roofing company GAF Energy began manufacturing and selling a competing solar shingle to residential roofers in 2022.
The Tesla Solar Roof commanded less than .03% of the approximately 5 million new rooftops built in the U.S. in 2022, according to Wood Mackenzie.
Apple CEO Tim Cook poses as Apple holds an event at the Steve Jobs Theater on its campus in Cupertino, California, on Sept. 9, 2024.
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
The most anticipated part of Apple’s Thursday earnings won’t be iPhone sales or Mac forecasts – it’ll be CEO Tim Cook’s comments on how the company is dealing with President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Apple is one of the most exposed companies to Trump’s tariffs and expected retaliation. It makes about three-quarters of its overall revenue from physical goods — iPhones, Macs and Apple Watches — mostly made in China or elsewhere in Asia. And the U.S. is its largest market.
“It’s how Apple responds to ‘everything else’ that will set the tone for post-earnings sentiment,” wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring in a Monday note.
He has an overweight rating on the stock, and wants to hear what Cook and Apple finance chief Kevan Parekh have to say about how the company is mitigating supply chain and tariffs risks, if Apple will raise prices or eat costs, and the status of Cook’s relationships with Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Apple hasn’t commented on the hefty tariffs Trump announced for every country in the world on April 2, but they represent a deep threat to the iPhone maker’s supply chain and sent the company’s share price down 9%.
“We are monitoring the situation and don’t have anything more to add than that,” Cook said during Apple’s January earnings call. Those were the company’s most recent comments on Trump’s trade policy.
Apple is perhaps the highest-profile example of a company that’s gotten caught up in Trump’s trade war.
It’s the most valuable U.S. company, hundreds of millions of Americans own iPhones and Cook built his reputation in Silicon Valley as an operations expert who keeps Apple’s inventory low and its logistics tight.
But Apple and Cook have stayed tight-lipped publicly even as Trump administration officials called for the company to move iPhone production to the U.S., imagining millions of Americans “screwing in little screws” to build the devices.
The White House suggested that Apple was capable of building iPhones in the U.S., something that many analysts said is impossible at worst and would result in a $3,500 iPhone at best.
“I speak to Tim Cook. I helped Tim Cook, recently, and that whole business,” Trump said in an oval office briefing earlier this month after he delayed the highest-tariffs on non-China nations for 90 days. It was a move that boosted Apple stock. Cook has maintained a line of communication with the Trump administration, according to Trump, dating back to his first term.
Apple CEO Tim Cook escorts President Donald Trump as he tours Apple’s Mac Pro manufacturing plant with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin looking on in Austin, Texas, November 20, 2019.
Tom Brenner | Reuters
Now it’s time to hear from Apple itself.
The tariffs are a material issue that will eventually affect the company’s financials. TD Cowen predicts that the current tariffs will cost Apple about 6% of its annual earnings this year. Apple reported about $94 billion in profit in its fiscal 2024.
It’s not just investors that want a peek into Apple’s thinking — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questioned Cook about what he discussed with the Trump administration ahead of the president’s decision to pause tariffs on non-China nations.
Apple’s share price remains lower than it was on April 2, even though analysts have said the pause will give Apple some flexibility to avoid the highest tariffs, thanks to its production locations in India and Vietnam.
Several recent reports have said that Apple will try to source as many iPhones as possible from from India, which only faces a 10% tariff, to avoid the highest 145% tariffs on China. But although Apple has been ramping up iPhone production in India since 2017, the company has only recently begun to ship commercially significant quantities in recent years, and Apple hasn’t confirmed the pivot to India or discussed its Indian production capabilities.
“While it’s possible for all 25 million of India capacity to be allocated to the US near-term, we think it could take approximately a year for production to double to 50 million overall,” TD Cowen analyst Krish Sankar wrote Monday, saying that Apple is expected to sell between 65 million and 70 million iPhones in the U.S. this year.
Apple declined to comment on sourcing iPhones to the U.S. from India.
Another closely-watched metric will be Apple’s China revenue, which could indicate if rising nationalism will hurt iPhone sales in the company’s third largest market, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Some analysts have noted that the smartphone owners in China are more likely to switch phone brands than Western consumers. There’s concern that now those Chinese consumers could take cues from media and government officials and buy Chinese phone brands, such as phones made by Huawei.
Dipanjan Chatterjee, principal analyst at Forrester, said that if Apple were to move a lot of production out of China, it would also have to consider if that could upset the Chinese consumer.
“If Apple is going to pull production out of China, that’s not going to go down well in that market,” Chatterjee said. “They’re going to hedge. You’re going to see a lot more saying and a little bit of tinkering and not a whole lot of doing.”
Analysts polled by FactSet expect Apple to report $1.62 in earnings per share on $94.19 billion in sales, which would be an almost 4% revenue increase on an annual basis.
Earnings per share: $1.01 adjusted vs. 91 cents expected by LSEG.
Revenue: $4.78 billion vs. $4.66 billion expected by LSEG.
Revenue increased 3% year over year from $4.65 billion. GE HealthCare reported net income of $564 million, or $1.23 per share, up from $374 million, or 81 cents per share, during the same period last year.
For its full year, GE HealthCare said it expects to report adjusted earnings in the range of $3.90 to $4.10 per share, which is a decline of 13% to 9% from its guide last quarter. The company said the range includes roughly 85 cents per share of tariff impact.
“Regarding the current global trade environment, we are actively driving mitigation actions,” GE HealthCare CEO Peter Arduini said in a statement. “We continue to see strong customer demand in many of the markets we serve and are well-positioned to drive long-term value as we invest in future innovation.”
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GE HealthCare’s stock over a one month period.
GE HealthCare sells a range of medical technology, pharmaceutical diagnostics, imaging solutions, AI tools and data analytics solutions. The company manufactures its products in 20 countries and serves customers in more than 160 countries around the globe, according to its website.
On April 2, Trump introduced his tariff policy, which initially established a 10% baseline tariff on almost every country, though many nations such as China, Vietnam and Taiwan were subject to much steeper rates. Days later, Trump dropped those steeper rates to 10% for 90 days to allow trade negotiations with those countries.
China remains a notable exception, as Trump has imposed cumulative tariffs of 145% on Chinese goods this year. This brings the total tariffs on some products from China to as high as 245%, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.
GE HealthCare has a substantial presence in China, and Arduini told investors Wednesday that the company has “conservatively assumed” that the bilateral US and China tariffs will account for 75% of its total net tariff impact.
The company announced in February that Johnson & Johnson veteran Will Song will lead its China business as CEO starting in July.
Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap Inc., speaks onstage during the Snap Partner Summit 2023 at Barker Hangar on April 19, 2023 in Santa Monica, California.
Joe Scarnici | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Snap shares fell more than 15% Wednesday after the social media company withheld second-quarter guidance due to the uncertain macroeconomic environment.
“While our topline revenue has continued to grow, we have experienced headwinds to start the current quarter, and we believe it is prudent to continue to balance our level of investment with realized revenue growth,” the company said Tuesday, adding that macro conditions could impact advertising demand.
Snap’s finance chief Derek Andersen said during an earnings call that some advertisers are already seeing an impact from changes to the de minimis exemption. The loophole, which ends Friday, currently allows shipments under $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free.
President Donald Trump‘s shifting tariff plans have created an unsettling backdrop for companies this earnings season. Fears of a weakening economy have also fueled concerns that companies could ease up advertising spending, where Snap makes a key component of revenues.
The company said ad revenues grew 9% year over year to $1.21 billion during the quarter.
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Despite holding back on guidance, Snap reported 14% revenue growth, up from $1.19 billion a year ago to $1.36 billion. Snap’s loss also narrowed 54% to $140 million, or 8 cents per share, from about $305 million, or 19 cents, last year. The loss was due to a $70.1 million charge related to cash severance, stock-based compensation expenses and other costs associated with a 2024 restructuring.
Snap also signaled ongoing user growth. Daily active users grew to 460 million, up from 453 million the previous quarter. The company said it hit 900 million monthly active users, up from 850 million in August, the last time Snap provided that stat. DAUs fell to 99 million from 100 million in North America during the period, but Snap says it doesn’t expect more declines this quarter.
Many on Wall Street expect the company’s lack of visibility into the second quarter and macro backdrop to weigh on shares and adjusted price targets to account for it.
“While [price-to-sales ratio] is nearing a historical bottom and could support stock, we reiterate our neutral rating as Snap has been pressured more than peers in prior macro downturns,” said Bank of America’s Justin Post.
Other social media companies saw shares move lower Tuesday, including Pinterest, down 5%, Reddit, down 6%, and Meta, down 3%.