Danish brewer Carlsberg on Wednesday raised its operating profit target for 2024, despite weaker-than-expected second-quarter sales.

Carlsberg now expects organic operating profit to rise by between 4% and 6% this year, compared with a previous forecast of between 1% and 5%.

Operating profit for the second quarter rose by 1% to DKK 6.34 billion on a reported basis, below the consensus target of DKK 6.47 billion.

On an organic basis, it rose by 4.7%.

Sales rose by 2.6% to DKK 38.77 billion, again missing the DKK 39.28 billion expected by analysts.

Organic growth came in at 3.9%.

Carlsberg attributed this below-expectation performance to unfavorable weather conditions and a deterioration in consumer sentiment in certain Asian countries.

Its shares were little changed (+0.4%) on Wednesday morning on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, still posting a negative performance (-1.8%) since the start of the year, although this was better than the 5% annual decline of the pan-European sector index, the STOXX Europe 600 Food & Beverage.

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