The world economy and politics might be in turmoil but things can’t be that bad; the rich are still buying Ferraris.
The legendary Italian luxury sports car maker raised core earnings 15% in the first quarter compared with the same period last year to €693 million ($786 million), and more significantly, retained its financial guidance for 2025. Lesser mortals like Stellantis, Volvo and even Mercedes, in the face of President Trump-driven tariff turmoil, decided times were too volatile to predict short-term profits.
Ferrari’s guidance for 2025 remains earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of at least €2.68 billion ($3.1 billion) and a margin of at least 38.3%. The predicted margin shows little change from the previous year. In 2024, Ferrari profits rose to €2.56 billion ($2.9 billion) a slight improvement on the forecast of €2.45 billion ($2.8 million).
Analysts agreed that Ferrari’s progress would continue unhindered.
Investment bank Morgan Stanley, in a report headed “1Q Results: Follow the Safety Car”, put it this way.
“Ferrari’s resilient Q1 and reiterated (guidance) exemplify the strength and ballast of the franchise as (Ferrari) pilots debris-strewn laps in the time of tariffs,” Morgan Stanley said.
Ferrari said first quarter earnings were helped by new, more expensive models like the SF90XX, the 12Cilindri and 499P Modificat. Sales rose 1% to 3,593 vehicles. China was a weak area, but Ferrari has limited sales there to no more than 10%. The U.S. is Ferrari’s largest market, accounting for about 25% of sales.
“We continue to view Ferrari as a uniquely positioned, defensive business, with an order book extending well into 2026 that can attain (“high single digit percentage) top line growth and (guided) profit growth with relatively low volatility to earnings, supporting our (overweight) rating,” Morgan Stanley said.
Bernstein Research was also impressed by Ferrari’s forecasting of 2025 results.
“Ferrari stands out, by confidently reiterating its (fiscal 2025) guidance originally provided in February at the 2024 results stage. It knows its customers and controls its own economics to a far greater degree than most companies. Ferrari’s stock price reacted positively on the day, and so outperformed both luxury and automotive stocks,” Bernstein said in a report.
Ferrari will launch six new models in 2025, including the all-electric model, the 296 Speciale and Speciale A Spider.
“The fact that these (latter two) models are priced 39% and 44% above the 296 GTB and GTS range vehicles speaks volumes of the pricing and mix levers that Ferrari can pull, which becomes even decisive when U.S. tariffs have to be mitigated,” Bernstein said.
Anyone doubting Ferrari’s ability to make money might be convinced by a new report from Best Brokers.
BestBrokers said in a report that Ferrari is the leader in the automotive industry when it comes to net profit per employee, generating $291,403 each in 2024.
“This is three times more than Toyota and five times more than Tesla,” said BestBrokers data analyst Paul Hoffman.
BYD of China was way behind with $6,123 net profit per employee.
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