Carlsberg shares down on disappointing Q2 results

Investing.com -- Shares of Carlsberg A/S (CSE:CARLb ) were down after the company pre-announced its Q2 results, posting a mixed bag of performance metrics.

At 6:46 am (1046 GMT), Carlsberg was trading 3.7% lower at DKK 744.4.

“Sales missed consensus expectations by over 100 basis points although EBIT was in line, despite a 110 bps increase in marketing/sales,” said analysts from RBC Capital Markets in a note.

This performance is seen in light of a 110 basis point increase in marketing and sales expenditures, a figure that significantly outpaced competitors such as Heineken (AS:HEIN ) and ABI (EBR:ABI ).

“Full year EBIT growth guidance has been increased to +4-6% from +1-5%; consensus is currently for +6.5%, so this increase might be seen as a little underwhelming in our view,” the analysts added, especially given the recent decline in Carlsberg's share price by 17% over the past three months. 

This downturn followed Carlsberg's announced offer for Britvic on July 8th. Group volume growth of 1.4% also fell short of the 1.7% consensus, with the sales miss largely attributed to price/mix rather than volume. 

EBIT missed expectations by 2%, although this was partially offset by the company's impressive increase in marketing and sales expenditure.

RBC Capital Markets flags that the slight increase in EBIT guidance does little to counterbalance the negative sentiment surrounding the Britvic acquisition and the disappointing sales figures.

Source: Investing.com