Key Takeaways
- Autoliv blamed a slump in car demand for a drop in second-quarter sales and lowered its guidance.
- The Swedish maker of automotive safety equipment missed quarterly profit and revenue estimates.
- Autoliv cut its full-year organic sales growth and adjusted operating margin forecasts.
Shares of Autoliv (ALV) sank Friday as the world’s largest maker of seatbelts and airbags for cars and trucks posted worse-than-expected results and slashed its guidance because of a slowdown in auto sales.
The Sweden-based firm reported second-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.87, with revenue falling 1.1% year-over-year to $2.61 billion. Both were short of forecasts.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mikael Bratt said, “Light vehicle production with certain key customers following weaker sales and inventory adjustments were lower than expected in the quarter, especially in June. The lower than expected sales impacted our profitability.” However, he added that customers’ production plans for the third quarter are “normalizing,” and that last month’s pullback “should be temporary.”
Autoliv Cuts FY Organic Sales Growth Outlook
Still, Autoliv cut its full-year organic sales growth outlook to around 2% from about 5% previously, and lowered its adjusted operating margin to around 9.5% to 10%, compared to the earlier projection of about 10.5%. The company anticipates that worldwide light vehicle production will be down 5.5% in the third quarter, and 2.2% for all of 2024.
Autoliv shares slumped about 8% as of 10:45 a.m. ET Friday to $99.82, their lowest level in eight months.