By Senad Karaahmetovic
Shares of Stellantis (BIT:STLA) are up in premarket trading Thursday after the car company reported very strong results.
Stellantis reported adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of €12.4 billion ($12.7 billion) to crush the analyst estimates of €9.42 billion. The company also reported net revenue of €88 billion for the first half of the year, easily ahead of the €83.56 billion expected.
The adjusted operating margin also surprised to the upside as it came in at 14.1%, much higher than the 11.4% expected. Stellantis reported an industrial free cash flow of €5.32 billion, smashing the consensus of €1.53 billion. This is despite H1 global shipments falling 7%.
The company reiterated its full-year outlook for adjusted operating margin and industrial free cash flow, despite cutting the industry outlook for North America and Enlarged Europe to -8% and -12%, respectively.
Stellantis said it delivered "an outstanding performance”, fueled by robust demand for its high-margin cars, including electric ones.
"We are ahead of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) in Europe in electric vehicle sales, and not far from Volkswagen AG (ETR:VOWG)," Chief Financial Officer Richard Palmer said on the call, according to Reuters.
"We are shaping Stellantis into a sustainable mobility tech company that's fit for the future," CEO Carlos Tavares added.
Oddo BHF analysts said Stellantis reported “another meaningful” beat.
“While a re-rating is more than deserved given current absurd valuation, macro uncertainty might unfortunately limit such potential in the near term,” analysts wrote in a client note.
Stellantis’ Milan-listed shares are up 3.3% today.