Herzogenaurach - The sporting goods group Adidas is continuing its good run and has grown strongly at the start of the year. Sales and operating profit rose more strongly than expected. However, the Herzogenaurach-based company has apparently not changed its forecast for the time being in view of the uncertain environment. Last year, the company regularly raised its outlook with the presentation of better-than-expected quarterly figures.
As a result, Adidas shares climbed by a good two percent on Thursday morning, making them one of the top performers on the Dax . According to Barclays analyst Carole Madjo, the Herzogenaurach-based company had once again clearly topped expectations with its key figures. The strong profitability, even without Yeezy, is evidence of enormous brand strength. The Group continues to develop strongly in a difficult environment, wrote Piral Dadhania from the Canadian bank RBC. "This is undoubtedly also due to the weakness of competitors such as Nike and Puma."
Analyst Adam Cochrane from Deutsche Bank saw no signs of a slowdown in business. The operating result exceeded market estimates by twelve percent and sales were also better than expected. The surprisingly good figures should support the forecast for the year as a whole.
Adidas has so far forecast currency-adjusted sales growth in the high single-digit percentage range, with the Adidas brand expected to grow by at least ten percent. The operating result is expected to reach 1.7 to 1.8 billion euros - after 1.3 billion euros in the previous year. According to Chochrane, analysts already have almost 2.1 billion euros on the cards.
The company had based its forecast published at the beginning of March, which was already classified as "conservative" at the time, on a "volatile" market environment. In addition, the customs policy of the new US government was still in its infancy.
In the first quarter, Adidas sales increased by almost 700 million to 6.15 billion euros compared to the same period last year, as the DAX company surprisingly announced on Wednesday evening. This corresponds to currency-adjusted growth of 13 percent. Excluding the sales of Yeezy products in the previous year, currency-adjusted growth amounted to 17 percent. This was due to double-digit percentage growth in all markets and all sales channels.
The gross margin increased by 0.9 percentage points year-on-year to 52.1 percent in the first quarter. The operating result rose from 336 to 610 million euros. The operating margin jumped from 6.2 to 9.9 percent. Adidas also reported better than expected results.
After the sale of the remaining Yeezy inventories was completed at the end of 2024, the results for the first quarter did not include any contributions from this area. The final quarterly results are to be published on April 29. (awp/mc/ps)
https://www.moneycab.com/international/adidas-schafft-starken-jahresauftakt/
