Joby Aviation surprised investors to the upside last night.
The air taxi company is still losing money -- but less than half as much money as last year.
Joby Aviation (NYSE: JOBY) stock jumped 5.4% through 10:50 a.m. ET Thursday after beating on both top and bottom lines on Q4 earnings last night.
Heading into the report, analysts expected the maker and operator of electric air taxis to lose $0.23 per share on sales of only $16.2 million. In fact, Joby lost only $0.14, and its sales were nearly twice as much as expected -- $30.8 million.
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How did Joby surprise the analysts? Stock dilution was part of the answer. Joby's share count swelled 22% over the past 12 months, spreading out total losses among more shares outstanding. But Joby also made objective improvements.
Start with revenue. One year ago, Joby generated sales of just $55,000. In Q4 2025, sales soared 55,900%. Granted, operating costs increased as well, but only 58.5%. Result: The company's quarterly loss totaled only $121.5 million, less than half what Joby lost a year ago.
For the full year, Joby reported sales of $53.4 million in 2025, $929.8 million in net losses, and a per-share loss of $1.13.
On the cash front, Joby ended the year with $1.4 billion in cash and equivalents. Total cash burn for the year was $563.8 million (up 18% year over year).
That means Joby has enough cash to stay solvent for at least two more years, and with Joby expecting to fly its first passengers starting this year (in Dubai), the cash burn situation may begin to improve.
Still, analysts don't expect Joby to turn profitable before 2032. Founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt predicts 2026 will "mark a key inflection point for Joby" -- but it's still a race against time for this air travel pioneer.
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Rich Smith 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.