Volkswagen Shares Fall After Guidance Adjustment

By Giulia Petroni

Shares in Volkswagen fell Monday after the German carmaker adjusted its full-year guidance for operating profit after third-quarter performance was hit by production losses from flooding in Slovenia and higher product costs.

At 0849 GMT, the stock traded 2.85% lower at EUR100.20.

Volkswagen said it expects to post an operating result of 4.9 billion euros ($5.19 billion) in the quarter, with an operating return on sales of around 6.2%, according to preliminary figures.

For 2023, the group now expects the operating result to come in around the previous year's level of EUR22.5 billion. The company had previously forecast an operating return on sales of between 7.5% and 8.5%, which according to analysts equated to between EUR23.6 billion and EUR26.7 billion.

"With volume and revenues holding up as expected, we see the warning to be company-specific rather than presenting a broad read-across to the sector," Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note.

However, they added that many market participants expected a warning, as Volkswagen was the company with the most cautious tone at various conferences.

Analysts at Citi said they weren't expecting "this magnitude of deterioration," even though the third quarter seasonally tends to have a lower operating margin.

Write to Giulia Petroni at giulia.petroni@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 23, 2023 05:05 ET (09:05 GMT)

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