For Investors Only: Tesla Quarterly Loss Wider Than Expected; Guidance: Slight Profit Next Quarter

CNBC is reporting:

Tesla reported a wider-than-anticipated net loss for the fourth-quarter as higher production costs offset better-than-anticipated revenues.

The electric-car maker reported a fourth-quarter non-GAAP net loss of 65 cents per share on revenue of $306.3 million. A year earlier, the company lost 69 cents per share on just $39 million in sales.

Analysts had expected the company to report a loss of 53 cents a share on $298 million in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Research and development costs were $62 million in the quarter on a non-GAAP basis but Tesla expects R&D spending to fall about 15 percent in the first quarter.

The company also expects to continue to make production improvements and should be "slightly profitable" in the first quarter.

We'll see. I notice they didn't mention which year that "first quarter" would be in.