Porsche Stock Tumbles on U.S. Sales Slide
April 02, 2008
Porsche’s stock fell by as much as 5 percent in German trading after the company reported its U.S. sales dropped 24 percent in March, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. The value of Porsche’s stock is down 17 percent for the year so far.
Porsche’s sales decline showed luxury buyers are now being affected by the economic slump and are bargain hunting, according to Edmunds.com’s analysis of March and first-quarter sales.
Sales of Porsche’s expensive 911 models plummeted by 76 percent in March and were sliced in half for the quarter compared with the same period a year ago. Similarly, sales of its less-expensive Boxster and Cayman sports cars were halved as well.
Sales of the reduced-price Cayenne GTS kept Porsche afloat. The German sports-car maker introduced an upgraded version of the standard Cayenne SUV but at a lesser price in February, which proved to be a smart move as Cayenne sales were the only Porsche models to see an increase. Also up were sales of certified pre-owned Porsches.
Worldwide, Porsche’s sports car sales are down as well.
Porsche had expected slower U.S. sales and announced in January plans to pare back inventories.•
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:05 AM under Analysis , Business , Companies | Comments (2) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
Not surprising given Porsche. What I would like to know is how bad the bleeding is at Porsche compared to, say, the 1970s, which was the last time high oil and gasoline prices were the norm.
Posted by: Isaac | April 02, 2008 at 9:41 AM
We should be referring to Porsche as an "automaker", not as a "sports-car maker". Those days are gone now, with a SUV and upcoming four door in the mix. Just like at GM, one wouldn't write, " sales of the Corvette were off this period but sales of the Malibu made significant gains for the sports-car maker". I'm not saying the metamorphosis at Porsche is a bad thing, but it no longer is the sports-car maker that I think of when I think of Porsche.
Posted by: fulcrumb | April 02, 2008 at 6:26 PM