HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - High personnel costs weighed more heavily than expected on the profits of forklift truck manufacturer Jungheinrich in the first quarter. Cost-cutting measures could not fully offset the increased costs from collective wage increases and the increase in personnel in 2023, as the company announced in Hamburg on Tuesday. The Board of Management is sticking to its targets for the year. However, Jungheinrich's preferred share fell by almost seven percent at times in the morning.

By late morning, the share was still one of the biggest losers in the MDax, the index of medium-sized stocks, with a discount of almost five percent.

In the first quarter, Jungheinrich's earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell by 15.5 percent year-on-year to 101.5 million euros. The decline was thus even greater than analysts had expected. While sales fell by a good one percent to 1.27 billion euros, the operating margin deteriorated from 9.3 to 8.0 percent. The improved financing business and customer service were not quite able to compensate for the decline in new business.

Baader Bank analyst Peter Rothenaicher put the decline in operating profit into perspective: Jungheinrich had benefited above average from price increases and lower material costs a year earlier. In addition, earnings had improved compared to the poor final quarter of 2023.

On balance, profit fell by almost a quarter to just under 68 million euros.

Incoming orders remained stable at 1.36 billion euros. However, the order backlog shrank by almost 14% to EUR 1.5 billion compared to the end of the year.

However, the management confirmed its targets for the year as a whole. Accordingly, the operating result (EBIT) for 2024 should be between 420 and 470 million euros, after Jungheinrich achieved 430 million euros last year.

Bernstein analyst Philippe Lorrain described the figures as "solid". It is in line with the forecast for the year. It is reassuring that incoming orders were somewhat better than he had expected. He considers the Jungheinrich share to be attractively valued.

Meanwhile, traders on the stock exchange discussed the competition between Jungheinrich and Kion. One Borsian argued that Jungheinrich is in a worse position than its competitors this year. The company is less diversified regionally and the introduction of new products is only likely to drive business in 2025. Compared to Kion, Jungheinrich shares are also valued at a rather high level.

The Jungheinrich preference share has risen by around three percent so far this year. The Hamburg-based company is thus valued at a good 1.6 billion euros on the stock exchange.

However, the preference shares only account for just under half of Jungheinrich's capital. The rest are ordinary shares owned by the heirs of the company's founder.

Kion shareholders, on the other hand, can look forward to a price gain of almost 16 percent since the turn of the year, making the Frankfurt-based company worth 5.8 billion euros on the stock exchange./lew/stw/mis