BMW reported quarterly results on Wednesday that were broadly in line with expectations, but a sharp drop in margins worried investors, leading to a decline in its share price on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

The world's leading premium car manufacturer reported first-quarter pre-tax profits of 4.16 billion euros this morning, down 19% on the same period last year.

Sales fell by 0.6% to 36.6 billion euros, despite a 1% rise in vehicle deliveries to 594,533 units and a favorable price/mix.

But the operating margin of its automotive activities contracted to 8.8%, compared with 12.1% last year, due to inflationary pressures that pushed up operating costs.

By way of comparison, analysts were targeting a figure of 10.2%.

'We anticipate a slight downward revision of the market consensus (of up to 5% for automotive Ebit) for fiscal 2024', reacted UBS staff.

The German automaker nevertheless reaffirmed its annual targets, starting with an operating margin of between 8% and 10% for its automotive activities.

The Munich-based group's shares - which had already suffered last week from the disappointing results of Mercedes-Benz - were down by more than 4% on Wednesday morning, posting by far the biggest drop on the DAX index.

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