FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Following the presentation of the annual figures and the self-imposed targets for the current year, Continental shares fell at times to their lowest level since the beginning of December. After dropping to 68.80 euros and thus also below the chart-technically important 200-day line, which signals the longer-term trend, the shares of the automotive supplier and tire manufacturer recovered somewhat. They recently fell by three percent to EUR 70.66, bringing their loss for the year to date to just over 8 percent.

The most important key figures in the fourth quarter were weaker than analysts had expected on average, as were the targets for sales and margins for the current year, emphasized David Lesne from the major Swiss bank UBS. According to him and Stifel analyst Alexander Wahl, the new forecast ranges are now likely to result in lower consensus estimates for operating profit (EBIT) of around 5 percent.

"Interestingly, this is the case despite an expected upside potential in the Automotive division and forecasts for the Tire and ContiTech divisions that turned out as expected," Wahl wrote. According to him, this therefore means that Conti "must assume a considerable increase in central costs for the current year".

UBS man Lesne, however, was pleased with the forecast for the automotive segment, which suggests an upward potential of around 15 percent. However, he qualified that the fourth quarter in the automotive segment had been weaker than expected and that the track record in recent years had been mixed. "As far as we know, surprisingly high exchange rate burdens were the reason for the weakness in the automotive business," Wahl added.

Meanwhile, market participants also criticized the fact that the expected adjusted free cash flow (FCF) in the current year is only expected to be between 700 million and 1.1 billion euros, while the consensus estimate is already at 1.08 billion euros. However, according to Warburg expert Marc-René Tonn, the FCF outlook "includes special charges of up to one billion euros. Without these factors, a higher FCF for 2024 than in the previous year would have been expected."/ck/men/mis