Ferrari stock (RACE) zoomed higher after the Italian luxury automaker reported results that topped expectations and guidance that surged past investor expectations. In addition, the company’s well-heeled clientele likely shields the company from tariff pressures coming from the Trump administration.
Global sales for the fourth quarter rose 14% to 1.74 billion euros ($1.8 billion) from a year ago, topping estimates of 1.64 billion euros ($1.7 billion) as compiled by Bloomberg. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) hit 2.14 euros ($2.22), also topping street estimates of 1.88 euros ($1.95), with EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) climbing 15% to 643 million euros ($666.5 million), about 20 million euros ($20.7 million) more than expected.
Ferrari shares were up nearly 9% following the earnings release.
“Quality of revenues over volumes: I believe this best explains our outstanding financial results in 2024, thanks to a strong product mix and a growing demand for personalizations,” Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna said in the earnings release. “On these solid foundations, we expect further robust growth in 2025, that will allow us to reach one year in advance the high-end of most of our profitability targets for 2026.”
Vigna also revealed on the earnings conference call that Ferrari would unveil its first EV at its Capital Markets day on October 9th.
Ferrari said its strong results led to 2025 guidance hikes with net revenues seen at more than 7 billion euros ($7.2 billion), versus the 6.7 billion euros ($6.94 billion) seen previously, with adjusted EBITDA of more than 2.68 billion euros ($2.78 billion), compared to 2.56 billion euros ($2.65 billion) earlier.
These figures would project an EBITDA margin of 38.3% for Ferrari, making the automaker the envy of the industry where margins usually tally in the mid to high single digits. For instance, GM's (GM) EBIT-adjusted margin was 5.3% in the fourth quarter.
Indeed, despite sales of only 13,752 units, its high margins led to sales of 13.75 billion euros ($14.25 billion) for the quarter, or a whopping 111,000 euros ($115,000) profit per car sold.
Ferrari’s performance in the US and Europe helped the automaker overcome weakness in China, where unit sales fell 33.3% in 2024 versus a year ago. Ferrari only sees 8% of sales from China, but it sees a quarter of sales coming from North America.
Though not called out by Ferrari in its release, the probability of tariffs on goods coming from the EU would normally be considered a headwind; however, for goods that cost around $500,000 on average, the addition of 10% to 20% more may not likely dissuade these buyers from purchasing.
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Indeed, Ferrari's wait list extends through 2026, meaning demand isn’t a problem for the automaker.
"We continue to view Ferrari as a uniquely positioned, defensive business (order book extending well into 2026) that can achieve high single digit top line growth and double digit profit growth with relatively low volatility to earnings, supporting our OW [overweight] rating," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a note to investors shortly after earnings were released.
Ferrari said sales were driven by the Purosangue SUV, the Roma Spider, and the 296 GTS sportscars. Shipments of the higher-end SF90 XX and 12Cilindri commenced in the second part of the year, the company said.
Meanwhile, Ferrari’s latest hypercar, the F80, debuted in Q4, with all 799 units already spoken for, despite a price of 3.6 million euros, or $3.9 million.
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for chof360 Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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