MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - After nine months, construction equipment manufacturer Wacker Neuson believes it is on track to achieve the annual targets it raised in the summer. However, following significant growth in the first half of the year, the company is experiencing an increasing slowdown and declining demand. The slowdown in momentum was already evident in the third quarter.

"Following the extraordinary growth in sales and earnings in the past financial year and also in the first half of the year, the economic slowdown we anticipated is now materializing in a weakening of demand," explained Group CEO Karl Tragl on Thursday when presenting the quarterly report. The duration and depth of this cannot be estimated at present.

After a strong start, the SDax-listed shares fell by up to 2.7 percent. In the early afternoon, they were still trading 1.7 percent below the previous day's close. The momentum of the recent recovery appears to have run out for the time being.

Analyst Martin Comtesse from investment house Jefferies did not like the quarterly report presented in the morning. According to the expert, order momentum has cooled massively. The company remains on track with its targets for this year, but the signs for 2024 are not good.

Wacker Neuson continues to expect revenue of EUR 2.5 billion to EUR 2.7 billion in 2023 due to the recently robust order backlog. The margin based on earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) is expected to be between 10 and 11 percent, the company announced in Munich. In 2022, Wacker Neuson achieved a margin of 9.0 percent on revenue of EUR 2.25 billion.

In the first nine months of the year, revenue rose 23 percent to just over two billion euros. The margin rose to 11.9 percent (previous year: 8.8 percent).

However, momentum slowed in the third quarter, although Wacker Neuson continued to achieve double-digit percentage growth. Revenue rose 14 percent to EUR 648 million. The EBIT margin fell by 0.2 percentage points to 9.8 percent. At the bottom line, Wacker Neuson earned a good fifth more at EUR 43 million./nas/mis/stk