HelloFresh Shares Surge on Rising Recipe-Box Sales

(Bloomberg) --

HelloFresh SE’s stock jumped as much as 14% after the company reported preliminary 2019 results that beat analyst expectations.

Shares rose 11% to 22.95 euros at 9:23 a.m. in Frankfurt trading. The shares earlier touched 23.60 euros, the biggest intraday gain since its last financial report in October.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for last year is expected to come in at 45 million euros ($50 million) to 48 million euros, the company said in a statement late Wednesday. That beat the 22.1 million-euro average estimate from analysts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The startup has consistently reported better-than-expected earnings throughout 2019, helping to more than triple its share price in the last 12 months. The German company, which assembles ingredients into boxed meal kits that customers cook at home, attributed the gains to performance in the fourth quarter without elaborating.

Revenue for 2019 rose about 36% on a constant-currency basis to 1.81 billion euros, HelloFresh said. The company had forecast revenue growth of as much as 33% for 2019.

The company said it will publish its full annual report for 2019 on March 3.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nate Lanxon in London at nlanxon@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Amy Thomson

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.