Vestas Upgrades Sales, Margins Forecast as Profit Surges

Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS) upgraded its forecast for full-year sales and profit margins after earnings beat analyst estimates in the third quarter. The shares jumped.

The wind-turbine manufacturer had a profit of 102 million euros ($126 million) in the three months through Sept. 30, rebounding from an 87 million-euro loss a year earlier, Aarhus, Denmark-based Vestas said in a statement. The average forecast of nine analysts on Bloomberg was for a 71 million-euro profit.

Vestas said it now expects sales for the year of as much as 7 billion euros, 1 billion euros more than it previously predicted. It upgraded its forecast for the operating margin for a second successive quarter, saying it now expects it to be as much as 8 percent.

“The third quarter of 2014 continued the trend with improvements in several operational areas and thus highlights that execution remains on track for our strategy,” Chief Executive Officer Anders Runevad said in the statement.

Vestas shares surged as much as 13 percent, the most in a year. They were up 11 percent to 224.5 kroner at 9:02 a.m. in Copenhagen.

Runevad took charge on Sept. 1 last year during a period of nine straight quarterly losses. The company snapped that run in the last quarter of 2013 and is now on course for its first annual profit since 2010 after racking up net income of almost 200 million euros in the first three quarters.

(Source: Bloomberg)