Porsche shares make profits: VW sports car subsidiary Porsche AG misses sales target – record profits

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In order to achieve the long-term ambition for a return on sales of over 20 percent, the management also launched a new efficiency program, as the group announced on Monday in Stuttgart. The share gave way after the first annual figures as a listed company again. In terms of sales, Porsche had not been able to bring in as much sales as had been promised.

The preferred stock listed on the DAX was 3.86 percent down at EUR 109.70 in the weak market in XETRA trading in the morning. Since the IPO in autumn, however, the price has developed well and increased by more than a third. Analyst Philippe Houchois from the US investment house Jefferies wrote that sales and operating profit were somewhat below market expectations.

With the sales increase of 13.6 percent to 37.6 billion euros, the company was below the target range of 38 to 39 billion euros. Stock market experts polled by Bloomberg had also expected higher proceeds.

This year sales are expected to increase to 40 to 42 billion euros. That would be at least six percent more than in the previous year. The profit margin of the operating result should be between 17 and 19 percent. In 2022, as expected, it had risen from 16 to 18 percent. When it comes to sales expectations, the management around boss Oliver Blume is somewhat more optimistic than the market, which on average expects a value at the lower end of the forecast range.

According to the information, Porsche made a profit after taxes of almost 4 billion euros in 2022 after almost 1.9 billion in the previous year, that was 5.44 euros per preferred share. The dividend for preferred shareholders is to amount to EUR 1.01. The ordinary shareholders – currently only the Volkswagen Group and the VW umbrella holding company Porsche SE – receive EUR 1.00 per share. In the medium term, CFO Lutz Meschke wants to distribute around 50 percent of the group result as a dividend.

Porsche delivered 309,884 cars last year, 2.6 percent more than in the previous year. “Under difficult conditions, we achieved by far the best result in the history of Porsche,” said Blume. “Our success factors are the improved price positioning, the strong product mix, the increased group sales, exchange rate effects and our high cost discipline,” added Meschke.

The order books are well filled, the company said. The all-electric new Macan model, which has been postponed for a long time, is scheduled to reach customers in 2024. Management now wants to address the long-term goal of an operating margin of more than 20 percent with the new “Road to 20” program. “We’re putting everything to the test again,” said Meschke. “Starting with our product range and pricing to the cost structure.” But that shouldn’t cost jobs – on the contrary, Porsche also wants to hire people with further investments, Meschke said at a press conference.

The Volkswagen Group took the sports car manufacturer public last September. A quarter of the preferred shares have been freely traded since then. The market capitalization is over 100 billion euros, well above that of the parent company VW with less than 80 billion. The family holding company Porsche SE acquired a blocking minority in the ordinary shares in the course of the IPO.

STUTTGART (dpa-AFX)

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