Lindt & Sprüngli reassured investors on Tuesday with better-than-expected annual results for 2023, but investors were still concerned about the fallout from the recent surge in cocoa prices.

This morning, the Swiss chocolate maker reported a 9% increase in operating profit (Ebit) to 813 million Swiss francs last year, compared with the average of 804 million expected by financial analysts.

Net profit rose by 17.9% to 671.4 million Swiss francs, enabling the company to increase its dividend from 100 Swiss francs to 1400 Swiss francs per ordinary share, and from 10 Swiss francs to 140 Swiss francs per preference share.

In January, Lindt announced that it would achieve organic sales growth of 10.3% in 2023, its third consecutive year of double-digit organic growth.

The manufacturer of Lindor chocolate balls - its best-selling product - has once again confirmed its target of 6% to 8% organic sales growth in 2024, accompanied by a 20 to 40 basis point improvement in operating margin.

Despite this solid outlook, analysts say they fear the effect of soaring cocoa prices, due to difficult climatic conditions, particularly intense heat, in West Africa, which have had a negative impact on cocoa production.

At around 11:20 a.m., the stock was down 1.5% on the Zurich Stock Exchange, while the index of European agri-food stocks was down 0.3%.

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