STUTTGART (dpa-AFX) - The VW sports car subsidiary Porsche AG is setting itself cautious targets for profitability in view of the many model changes this year. Despite further supply chain disruptions, strong inflation and high investments, Porsche increased its profit last year and kept the return on sales stable in day-to-day business, as the Stuttgart-based company announced in Stuttgart on Tuesday. "In 2024, we will launch an unprecedented product offensive," said CEO Oliver Blume according to the press release. The share fell after the start of trading.

The preference share, which has been under pressure for several months, fell by 1.8 percent to 79.10 euros in the Dax. The sports car manufacturer went public in September 2022 at 82.50 euros per share. In June 2023, the share price had scratched the 120 euro mark after a high. However, problems with sales in the important Chinese market then increasingly weighed on performance. The upturn in European automotive stocks since the fall failed to boost Porsche shares. The Italian luxury rival Ferrari, on the other hand, has been racing from record to record with its shares for some time now.

Investors are aware that Porsche is facing a year of transition, according to the trade. The weaker-than-expected operating margin this year could nevertheless weigh on the share price today. The fourth quarter turned out better than generally expected, wrote analyst Philippe Houchois from the investment bank Jefferies. However, the outlook remains somewhat below expectations. JPMorgan expert Jose Asumendi expressed a similar view. He anticipates a significant upturn in results in the second half of the year and then full momentum in the coming year. Price increases should already have an impact this year.

Blume's management expects the operating return on sales - i.e. what is left over from sales as operating profit in day-to-day business - to be in the range of 15 to 17 percent. This would be less than the margin of 18.0 percent held stable in the previous year and also less than analysts had previously calculated. Porsche is forecasting turnover of 40 to 42 billion euros. In 2023, the company had generated revenue of 40.5 billion euros, also thanks to an increase in deliveries of a good three percent, which was almost eight percent more than a year earlier.

This year, Porsche is launching new versions of the Panamera and the Taycan electric sports car as well as the long-awaited all-electric Macan. In addition, the new Cayenne, the Zuffenhausen-based company's best-selling model, was launched late in 2023. The classic 911 sports car will also be refreshed in early summer.

Porsche had already indicated that the delayed and staggered product launches would be challenging. In the medium and long term, Porsche is sticking to its return ambitions, said CFO Lutz Meschke according to the press release. In the medium term, Porsche is aiming for a margin of 17 to 19 percent, and in the long term it should even be driven to over 20 percent.

In order to achieve this, Porsche launched a new profit program around a year ago. "We are also investing a lot of money here in order to tap into new sources of revenue," said Meschke. According to the information provided, this includes exclusive offers and services in particular.

Above all, Porsche wants to remain flexible in production and be able to build combustion engines, hybrids and fully electric cars at the same time. Last year, the proportion of fully electric vehicles rose by 1.5 percentage points to 12.8 percent. In the middle of the decade, a fully electric 718 and an electric SUV, which is positioned above the Cayenne and should therefore deliver high sales prices, are to be added in the future.

Last year, profit after tax rose by almost 13 percent to 5.16 billion euros. The dividend is set to increase from 1.01 euros to 2.31 euros per preference share. Around a quarter of the preference shares are in free float, the rest belong to the Volkswagen Group. The ordinary shareholders - currently exclusively the Wolfsburg-based car giant and the VW umbrella holding company Porsche SE, owned by the Porsche and Piech families - will receive a dividend of 2.30 euros per share./men/niw/stk