Air Liquide lifts mid-term margin target, extends period to end-2026
Shares of the company, which supplies gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen to factories and hospitals, rose 3.6% in early trading.
It expects the operating profit margin to rise by 460 basis points (bps), or 4.6 percentage points, between 2022 and 2026, compared with the previous goal of 320 bps rise until the end of 2025.
"It is uncharacteristic for Air Liquide to provide a quantitative margin improvement target at the start of the year," J.P.Morgan analysts said in a note to clients.
"That they have chosen to do this now not just for 2025 but also 2026 shows perhaps a higher level of management confidence on the delivery of these targets," they added.
Air Liquide said its operating margin, excluding energy impact, had grown by 260 bps so far in the guidance period. Last year's improvement alone was 110 bps, it added.
"We are continuing to prepare the future, with sources of growth fueled by our record investment decisions in 2024, reaching 4.4 billion euros ($4.6 billion)," CEO Francois Jackow said in a statement.
The company reiterated its guidance for average revenue growth of 5% to 6% per year between 2022 and 2025. The average growth rate stood at 6.5% at the end of last year.
It reported revenue of 27.06 billion euros for 2024, up 2.6% on a comparable basis, while recurring operating income margin rose to 19.9%. Analysts polled by Vara Research had expected sales of 27.00 billion euros.
Annual net profit was 3.31 billion euros, just below the consensus of 3.34 billion euros.
The Paris-listed group also said it would propose a dividend of 3.30 euros per share for 2024, up 13.7% from a year earlier.
($1 = 0.9533 euros)
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