Maersk Launches New Buyback After 1Q Earnings Soared -- Earnings Review

  By Dominic Chopping 
 

Denmark's A.P. Moeller-Maersk AS reported results for the first quarter on Wednesday. Here's what we watched:

REVENUE: Maersk confirmed the preliminary first-quarter data it released last week, with revenue rising to $12.44 billion, as surging demand led to bottlenecks in the supply chain and a shortage of containers. Revenue in the same quarter last year totaled $9.57 billion.

EARNINGS: Maersk also confirmed its pre-released first-quarter underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $4.04 billion and underlying earnings before tax of $3.1 billion. Underlying Ebitda in the prior-year quarter stood at $1.52 billion, with underlying EBIT of $540 million. The company posted a quarterly net profit attributable of $2.7 billion, up from $197 million in the same period the previous year, and compared with $2.38 billion seen in a FactSet analyst forecast.

WHAT WE WATCHED:

-VOLUMES AND RATES: Maersk confirmed that shipping volumes rose 5.7% in the quarter and that average freight rates were 35% higher, as expected. It said it has signed up more long-term contracts in the quarter, with volumes secured on long-term contracts expected to rise 20% on the year in 2021 to around 6 million standard 40-foot containers with around 1 million standard 40-foot containers on multi-year contracts, providing predictability and stability for its earnings.

-BUYBACKS: The company completed the first 3.3 billion Danish kroner ($533.6 million) of its DKK10-billion buyback program last month and will close the remaining DKK6.7 billion between mid-May and the end of September 2021. It announced Wednesday a new share buyback program of up to DKK31 billion, to be executed over a period of two years from when the current program is finalized.

-GUIDANCE: Maersk backed its most recent guidance, expecting full-year 2021 underlying Ebitda of $13 billion-$15 billion and underlying EBIT of $9 billion-$11 billion. Free cash flow for 2021 is still expected to be at least $7 billion while cumulative capex for 2021-2022 is seen at around $7 billion. The 2021 outlook for global market demand growth is still expected at 5%-7%.

Write to Dominic Chopping at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 05, 2021 08:33 ET (12:33 GMT)

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