Investing.com -- Swiss chocolate maker Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Spruengli AG Part (SIX:LISP) posted a slightly better-than-expected full-year operating profit on Tuesday, sending its shares around 6% in European trading.
"Tight cost control, efficiency gains, process optimization and price increases offsetting higher cocoa costs contributed to the increased profitability," the chocolate maker said in a statement.
Cocoa prices in London are hovering around £6,908 ($8,734.5) per metric ton, with analysts warning that the industry faces a challenging 2025 due to the soaring cost of raw materials. This is expected to drive further price increases in the double-digit percentage range.
"Lindt continues to navigate this unprecedented cocoa bean price environment unabated, breaking record after record," Vontobel analyst Jean-Philippe Bertschy noted.
The company reported 2024 earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of 884 million Swiss francs ($987 million), slightly surpassing the 880 million francs consensus compiled by LSEG.
Lindt posted a full-year EBIT margin of 16.2%, up 54 basis points year-over-year. This exceeded its guidance of "at least 16.0%" and topped the Visible Alpha consensus of 16.1%.
Analysts said the stand-out performance was the free cash flow (FCF), which Lindt reported at 635 million francs, up 33% year and implying a FCF margin of 11.6%.
“This was boosted by a very working capital performance,” Barclays (LON:BARC) analysts said.
“Higher cocoa prices are driving premiumisation which is good news for Lindt’s portfolio. We continue to believe Lindt is the safe haven in the space,” they noted.
Lindt’s second-half profitability was also stronger than expected, with EBIT margins slightly ahead of forecasts and EBIT coming in 7 million Swiss francs, or 1%, above consensus.
The positive surprise was driven entirely by Europe, which exceeded expectations by 5%, while the US and the rest of the world disappointed.
“With long-term growth likely to need to come beyond Europe this is not exactly the shape of the beat that we’d like to see, nevertheless the resilience of the EU business continues to astound,” Bernstein analysts commented.
Looking ahead, Lindt, known for its signature chocolate Easter bunnies, reaffirmed its January forecast of 7% to 9% sales growth for 2025 and signaled further price hikes this year.
It expects an operating margin improvement of 20-40 basis points, implying a range of 16.4-16.6%, above the 16.3% consensus.
The company also reiterated its mid-to-long-term targets of 6-8% organic sales growth and annual margin expansion of 20-40 bps.
Moreover, Lindt announced plans to propose a dividend of 1,500 Swiss francs per share, in line with LSEG estimates.