British Columbia stops rebates on Tesla (TSLA) chargers, battery installations. (00:32) Ulta Beauty's (ULTA) Q4 results offset conservative guidance. (01:35) Li Auto (LI) earnings: Q4 beats EPS estimates, misses on revenue by $60M; initiates Q1 outlook. (02:52) Episode transcripts seekingalpha.com/wsb.Show links: Biggest stock movers Friday: DOCU, PTON, and moreTrump to invoke wartime law as soon as Friday to fast-track deportations - reportMorgan Stanley’s top quality stocks to own for the long termS&P correction: Biggest decliners as index logs first 10% fall from peak since 2023Sign up for our daily newsletter here and for full access to analyst ratings, stock quant scores, dividend grades, subscribe to Seeking Alpha Premium at seekingalpha.com/subscriptions.
Full Episode
Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Breakfast, where we cover the top news for investors every morning. Good morning. Today is Friday, March 14th. I'm Julie Morgan. A major EV player just got unplugged from a key rebate program in Canada, and you probably already know what's behind the policy shift. A strong holiday quarter is giving Ulta a boost, and Lee Auto just reported earnings.
We're looking at how Wall Street is reacting to the numbers. British Columbia has pulled rebates for residents to install Tesla chargers. BC Hydro, the province's power company, said in a notice on its website that Tesla's vehicle chargers, batteries, and inverters are not eligible for the rebates effective March 12th. The notice said that the government of B.C. and B.C.
Hydro are taking action to preference Canadian goods in their rebate programs going forward and to exclude where practicable U.S. produced goods. Other brands from American automakers such as Ford and Rivian appear to be unaffected, according to a search on B.C. Hydro's website, Ford Makes Vehicles in Canada.
The website shows that the province's rebates may cover up to half of the purchase price of a charger and installation. The news out of British Columbia came the same day as Tesla sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Greer warning of harmful impacts on automakers and consumers by retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. Ulta Beauty is reversing Thursday's losses during the regular session.
Better-than-expected Q4 results that included above-consensus comparable store sales has raised the stock 7% in pre-market trading. Comparable store sales were up 1.5% in Q4, nearly double what the street was expecting and driven by a 3% increase in prices. But due to an extra week in fiscal year 23, net sales were down 1.9% to $3.48 billion, still beating expectations by $10 million.
This contributed to a much better-than-expected profit of $8.46 per share, $1.31 better than estimates. Although Q4 results exceeded expectations, guidance for the current year was more conservative. For fiscal year 25, Ulta anticipates total sales to be between $11.5 and $11.6 billion, with the top end below the consensus forecast of $11.67 billion.
Profits are targeted for $22.50 to $22.90 per share, down from $25.34 in fiscal year 24 and below estimates of $23.54. Lee Auto has reported Q4 non-gap E-pads of 52 cents, beating by 12 cents. Revenue of $6.1 billion, up 3.7% year-over-year, misses by $60 million. Total deliveries for the fourth quarter of 2024 equaled 158,696 vehicles, representing a 20.4% year-over-year increase.
Vehicle sales were $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024, representing an increase of 5.6% from the fourth quarter of 2023 and an increase of 3.2% from the third quarter of 2024. Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2025, Lee Auto expects delivery of vehicles to be between 88,000 and 93,000 vehicles, representing a year-over-year increase of 9.5 to 15.7%.
The company expects total revenues to be between $3.2 billion and $3.4 billion versus consensus of $4.90 billion, representing a year-over-year decrease of 8.7% to 3.5%. Pre-market Lee Auto is down 3.5%. Now for a look at what's trending on Seeking Alpha, we have a look at Morgan Stanley's top quality stocks to own for the long term.
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