Investing.com – Shares of Airbus (EPA:AIR) jumped on Wednesday after the company reported solid results for the first half of 2024, delivering 323 commercial aircraft, an increase year-over-year, and growing revenue to €28.8 billion.
The commercial aircraft producer secured a healthy order book, with gross commercial aircraft orders totaling 327 and net orders reaching 310. The company also reported an order backlog of 8,585 commercial aircraft at the end of June 2024.
“Main beat was in Airbus commercial, where the expected headwinds did not appear to materialise (or were offset),” said analysts from CitiGroup Research in a note.
Airbus' Q2 sales met expectations, but EBIT significantly outperformed consensus, exceeding Visible Alpha estimates by 8% and company-compiled estimates by 16%, Citi added.
Airbus invested €1,593 million in research and development (R&D) during H1 2024. The company reported a consolidated net income of €825 million, resulting in earnings per share of €1.04.
Free cash flow before customer financing was negative at €-0.5 billion, primarily due to working capital changes. The company held a gross cash position of €21.9 billion and a net cash position of €7.9 billion after dividend payments.
For the full year 2024, Airbus aims for around 770 commercial aircraft deliveries, EBIT Adjusted of approximately €5.5 billion, and free cash flow before customer financing of around €3.5 billion.
“Management maintained their full year 2024 financial and delivery targets, as we believe investors had largely expected with the recent update provided in June,” said analysts from RBC Capital Markets in a note.
Operating margins, though down about 170 basis points year-over-year, exceeded consensus expectations by 110 basis points. The Defense & Space margins weighed on the consolidated results, with pre-announced charges of around €1 billion taken in the quarter, RBC added.