The commercial vehicle manufacturer Daimler trucks posted a surprisingly large operating profit thanks to good business in the past quarter. The group justified this with strong sales, robust price enforcement and a positive development of the service business. However, the good numbers did not come as a complete surprise, as management recently raised its sales, revenue and margin targets and announced an extensive share buyback. On the stock exchange, the reaction on Thursday morning was manageable.
The share fell moderately in the morning and thus continued the heavy price losses of the previous day. In the course of Thursday, however, Daimler Truck’s paper turned positive. Since the beginning of the year, the share has gained a good 13 percent in value, which means that the price has now reached the level at the IPO at the end of 2021. The previous high from January 2022 at a good 35 euros is also getting closer.
Industry experts were impressed by the quarterly figures. The group is now convincing with a strong operating result just over a week after the improved forecast, wrote analyst Nick Housden from the Canadian bank RBC in an initial reaction. According to him, Daimler Truck is a “much better company than the current valuation suggests”. Jefferies expert Himanshu Agarwal also spoke of “strong key data”.
According to preliminary calculations, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) reached almost 1.4 billion euros in the second quarter, as the Dax group announced on Wednesday evening in Leinfelden-Echterdingen. A year earlier there had been an operating profit of almost 1.1 billion euros. Analysts surveyed by Daimler Truck had expected an average of 1.3 billion this time. Before special effects, the operating result rose from a good one billion to 1.4 billion euros; that was also more than the market thought.
CEO Martin Daum (63) had to Forecast upgrade mid-month extremely confident and referred to, among other things, the more stable supply chains and stronger core markets. The lucrative service business is also developing well at Daimler Truck. In addition, the Swabians had raised prices last year more than ever before – this is still having an effect in some cases.
In the past quarter, Daimler Truck said it did better than expected across all business areas. In the industrial business, which includes the vehicle segments Trucks North America, Mercedes-Benz, Trucks Asia, Daimler Buses and the reconciliation, the adjusted return on sales was 10.3 percent according to the preliminary figures, while analysts had only calculated an average of 9.2 percent. A year earlier it was 8 percent.
The company intends to publish the full quarterly figures on August 1st.