Ferrari Hikes Profit Target Amid Pressure to Electrify
Ferrari Hikes Full-Year Profit Target Amid Pressure to Electrify
(Bloomberg) --
Ferrari NV slightly raised its full-year profit target after the Italian supercar maker managed to dodge the supply-chain snarls weighing on most other automakers.
Ferrari sees adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about 1.52 billion euros ($1.76 billion) for 2021 after a jump in third-quarter shipments and profit, it said Tuesday. That’s up from an earlier projection of as much as 1.5 billion euros.
New Chief Executive Officer Benedetto Vigna is under pressure to put Ferrari on course for electrification. The industry outsider joined from chipmaker STMicroelectronics NV in September and investors are eager to hear about his strategy for the era of battery technology and digital services.
Ferrari has been slow to embrace batteries and plans to unveil its first fully electric vehicle in 2025, Chairman John Elkann said earlier this year. In contrast, Porsche’s popular Taycan has been on the road since 2019.
Ferrari reported better-than-expected adjusted Ebitda of 371 million euros in the third quarter. Sales rose to 1.05 billion euros, slightly below analyst predictions.
The company shipped 2,750 cars in the three months through September, a 19% jump compared with the same period last year and an 11% increase over 2019, before the pandemic hit. Ferrari benefited from strong demand in the U.S., first deliveries of the SF90 Spider and the production ramp-up of the Portofino M.
The numbers show that Ferrari managed to avoid the disruption from the semiconductor shortage that has hammered auto production elsewhere. Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz, for example, saw car sales plunge about 30% last quarter.
The Italian manufacturer will brief investors on its future strategy during a capital markets day next year. It will also start sales of its first-ever SUV, the Purosangue, in 2022 -- years after Bentley’s Bentayga and Lamborghini’s Urus.
In June, Ferrari unveiled its second plug-in hybrid car, the 819-horsepower 296 GTB, though many analysts still consider the pace of electrification to be too slow.
Ferrari was little changed as of 2:47 p.m. in Milan. The shares have climbed about 11% this year, giving the company a market value of roughly 38 billion euros.
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