HERZOGENAURACH (dpa-AFX) - German sportswear firm Puma SE (PMMAF.PK) reported Thursday that its fourth-quarter net earnings improved significantly to 15.7 million euros from 2.2 million euros last year. Earnings per share increased correspondingly to 1.05 euros from 0.14 euros last year.
Operating result or EBIT improved by 26.1 percent to 37.6 million euros. The gross profit margin remained stable at a high level of 47.1 percent, despite negative currency impacts in the quarter.
Sales increased 17.9 percent to 1.23 billion euros, and the growth was 20.1 percent currency adjusted with strong growth in all regions and product segments.
Further, the Management Board and the Supervisory Board will propose to the Annual General Meeting on April18, 2019, a dividend of EUR 3.50 per share for the financial year 2018.
Looking ahead, the company said it is confident that the positive development will continue in 2019.
Chief Executive Officer of PUMA said, 'We see that our progress will also continue in 2019 and expect our currency adjusted sales to grow around 10 percent and our operating result to increase to a range between EUR395 million and EUR415 million.'
Gross profit margin would show a slight improvement compared to last year's 48.4 percent.
Management also expects a significant improvement of net earnings in 2019.
With that, PUMA is well on track towards achieving medium-term ambition of 10 percent EBIT margin by 2021/22 with average annual sales growth of 10 percent in constant currency.
In Germany, Puma shares were trading at 454 euros, down 5.71 percent.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX