Adidas shares rise after hiking 2024 guidance

Shares in Adidas were slightly higher on Wednesday after the company announced it would hike its full year 2024 earnings guidance following better-than-expected preliminary results for the second quarter.

Adidas rose nearly 5% after markets opened on Wednesday before paring gains to around 2% by the market close.

The German sportswear company on late Tuesday said it was now expecting its operating profit to reach around 1 billion euros ($1.09 billion) across full-year 2024, up from the previously expected 700 million euros.

Adidas said its revenues rose 11% in the second quarter, compared to the previous year.

Excluding sales of the struggling Yeezy line in both year, currency-neutral revenue rose 16% in the quarter, Adidas noted. Adidas in January announced that it would not write off most of its unsold Yeezy inventory and would instead sell the remaining shoes.

Adidas collaborated with the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, on the Yeezy line, but cut ties with him after a series of anti-semitic remarks.

“Within its guidance, the company assumes the sale of the remaining Yeezy inventory during the remainder of the year to occur on average at cost. This would result in additional sales of around € 150 million and no further profit contribution during the remainder of the year,” Adidas said Tuesday.

Operating profit increased to 346 million euros in the second quarter of the year, far higher than the 176 million recorded in the same time period a year earlier, Adidas said Tuesday.

The company had already hiked its 2024 outlook once this year after releasing its first-quarter results, which also beat expectations. The sportswear brand in April said that its operating profit for the first three months of the year came in at 336 million euros, compared to 60 million posted in the same quarter a year earlier.