Vitesco Earnings: Dinged by Industry Headwinds but Maintains Full-Year Guidance

Narrow-moat-rated Vitesco Technologies reported first-quarter earnings per share before special items of EUR 0.29, well below the EUR 0.71 FactSet consensus EPS but EUR 0.38 higher than last year’s EUR 0.09 loss per share. Thanks to less sporadic customer production from the chip crunch and the launch of new business, partially offset by noncore business wind-downs, consolidated revenue increased 3% to EUR 2.31 billion from EUR 2.26 billion last year, about even with consensus. Excluding favorable currency, organic revenue edged 1% higher versus a 6% increase in global light-vehicle production. Core organic revenue, excluding wind-down businesses, increased 8%, outperforming the market as the first quarter last year was hit harder by the chip crunch.