My dears, I will remain invested here too.
Kitron exceeds its own expectations with strong Q1 growth. The defense segment doubled its share of sales and drove the share price up by over eight percent.
In brief
- Sales jump by 66 percent
- Armaments business triples
- EBIT margin above target
- Order backlog grows strongly
Kitron presented some impressive figures this morning. Turnover climbed to 272.7 million euros in the first quarter of 2026 - an increase of almost 66% compared to the same period last year. As a result, the share price rose by more than 8 percent.
What is behind this? The defense business has almost tripled from a standing start. The defense and aerospace segment achieved sales of 137 million euros, compared to 44 million euros in the first quarter of 2025. This means that this segment now accounts for around half of total sales - a year ago it was only a quarter.
Margins cross the finish line
The operating result (EBIT) has more than doubled: from 12.5 to 25.6 million euros. The EBIT margin of 9.4% exceeds the self-imposed target of 9%. At the same time, the management admits that even more could have been achieved internally - supply chain problems and the onboarding effort for almost 1,000 new employees cost some efficiency in Q1. Neither of these are structural problems and have already been factored into the planning for the rest of the year.
The order backlog reached EUR 805.9 million at the end of the quarter, an increase of 54% compared to the previous year. The book-to-bill ratio of 1.35 shows this: New orders are coming in much faster than the company is processing them. And the six-month outlook (R6) stands at around 590 million euros - although the management emphasizes that this figure has been deliberately loaded forward by around 10 percent in order to cushion delivery fluctuations.
On the way to the 1.5 billion mark
The integration of DeltaNordic, which was acquired in January and now operates under the name Kitron Eltech, is going better than expected, according to the company. The acquisition is expected to contribute around 74 million euros to turnover in 2026, around half of which will come from defense applications. Capacity expansions in Poland (plus 40 percent), a Swedish plant that has already been completed and a new building in Örnsköldsvik planned for early 2028 - which will double the capacity there - underline the expansion course.
The annual forecast for 2026 remains at 900 million to 1.05 billion euros in turnover and an EBIT of between 84 and 108 million euros. The new estimate is that the figures now tend towards the upper half of these ranges. The medium-term target of EUR 1.5 billion in annual turnover is based on three structural drivers: European defence upgrades, network expansion and data centre infrastructure as well as the digitalization of the industry. In the investor meeting, the CFO cited an EBIT margin of 9.5% to 10% as a realistic expectation for the remainder of the year.
Kitron Aktie: Rekordjagd nicht vorbei
