FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - A surprisingly significant drop in sales and profits in the first quarter caused Porsche AG's share price to fall on Monday. Around midday, the shares of the sports car manufacturer lost 2.5 percent to 87.52 euros. This made them one of the biggest losers on the DAX.

In contrast, the shares of parent company Volkswagen (VW) defied the news with a gain of 0.5 percent. They were also helped by significant gains in Traton's share price after several analysts raised their price targets for the shares of the VW commercial vehicle subsidiary and confirmed their positive investment recommendations. On Friday, Traton shares had suffered from profit-taking after reaching a record high.

The majority of experts did not want to overestimate the current Porsche figures. Analyst George Galliers from the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, for example, emphasized that a weak quarter is generally not a surprise.

Michael Punzet from DZ Bank added that Porsche had already held out the prospect of a weak start to the year when formulating its annual targets due to upcoming model changes. Despite the margin disappointment, he expects "no significant changes in market expectations". The upcoming quarterly report from VW will now be important for the share price.

Stephen Reitman from US analyst firm Bernstein Research believes that if business development gradually improves, Porsche could still achieve its expected operating profit margin (EBIT) of 16 percent in 2024. And Jose Asumendi from the US bank JPMorgan is confident that the first quarter is likely to have been the low point of the year. He sees Porsche AG at a turning point, as the Group should benefit from new vehicle models from the second half of the year. The Zuffenhausen-based company will be renewing four of its six model series in 2024.

However, UBS analyst Patrick Hummel was more critical. He criticized the fact that the operating margins had failed to meet the already reduced expectations. In addition, the higher long-term investments were a negative surprise. The conclusion of a trader was similarly negative./gl/edh/mis