Lucid CFO resigns: Impact on stock, company outlook

Lucid Group (LCID) shares dropped in after-hours trading after the company announced its CFO Sherry House is resigning, effective immediately.

Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian discusses the news and some of the challenges the company has faced this year. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Shares of Lucid falling in after hours trading as the company is announcing the departure of its CFO, Sherry House. Lucid saying in a press release House is resigning from her position effective immediately to pursue other opportunities. Pras Subramanian is here to talk more about this. This is not the first management change that lucidus had, right? Hasn't there been some moving around?

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: I think so. Yeah. There has been. But CFO, Sherry House, is one of the biggest to leave here. She's been there for the company for a long time now, was there during the IPO. Or, should I say, their reverse [? SPAC ?] merger. I believe it was with--

JULIE HYMAN: Yes.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: --Chruchill. Anyway. Yeah. So she's leaving going to be replaced by Gagan Dhingra who is Lucid's VP of accounting and principal accounting officer. He'll serve as the interim CFO there. Now on Friday, the company was removed from the NASDAQ 100, along with a couple of other companies there, who from a performance point of view, Julie, I imagine that's why. Rough year for the stock, obviously. Up a little bit this month, but down 30% this year. Time and time again this year, they've had to raise money through either stock offerings or debt offerings, or a combination of both. It's been a tough road so far for EVs this year. And we saw Fisker earlier this-- sorry, a month ago, lose its CFO too. So it's a rough time here at the end of the year for these pure play EV companies.

ZACK GUZMAN: I mean, we've had some analysts come on the show, Pras, who I wouldn't say they're not bullish on the name. They have a buy rating. But they would point out that, in their opinion, it does have some strength, Lucid. They'll talk about-- they'll say, listen, the company makes good vehicles. They'll talk about license agreements they have with Aston Martin. They'll also bring up the deep pockets, right, with the Saudis. But what are some of the main challenges for Lucid? I mean, is it is it brand awareness? Is it production cash burn?

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: I think it's a couple. I think it's they operate in that higher tier luxury space, which is pretty competitive. And of course, higher pricing.

ZACK GUZMAN: Right.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: They went with the-- they didn't go with the asset light model. They actually have a factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. They have a factory in Saudi Arabia. They're building the cars from scratch, not using a contract manufacturer. That's different than what Fisker is doing. And that potentially is a cash drain and cash burn that maybe some investors aren't comfortable with. And the Saudis, they have unlimited money, but how long will they keep writing checks for them? And that's the big question.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, it's interesting. I'm just looking at Houses background a little bit more. She only worked there for about 2 and 1/2 years. She was at Waymo before. So interesting that her tenure was not that long before leaving Lucid, so we'll see what happens here.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: See where she ends up, right?

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. Most definitely.

ZACK GUZMAN: Pras, thank you.