(News Bulletin 247) – All of the index’s members have published their half-yearly accounts. News Bulletin 247 provides a quick update on their net profits made over the first six months of 2024.

Earnings season is over for the 39 companies that have published half-yearly accounts (Pernod Ricard will deliver its results for the full 2023-2024 financial year at the end of August). Which companies have published the biggest profits?

News Bulletin 247 has taken stock. Cumulatively, the CAC 40 members have generated 71.7 billion euros in net profits, according to our count based on company announcements, or an average of 1.8 billion euros per group.

This is significantly less than in the first half of 2023, when the figure was €82.61 billion. The largest profit providers in the CAC 40, namely Totalenergies, Stellantis, LVMH and BNP Paribas, all saw their profits decline over the period. For BNP Paribas, this is due in particular to the fact that the company had recorded a capital gain on the sale of its Californian network Bank of the West in the first half of 2023, creating an unfavourable base effect. As for Totalenergies, the decline is actually quite limited, at 1%.

Heavyweights in the tough stuff

The decline is much more marked (-14%) at LVMH, faced with a slowdown in demand for luxury products and a decline in its operating margin, as well as at Stellantis where net profit has almost halved.

Stellantis saw its revenues and margins plunge in the first half, weighed down by high inventories and plummeting volumes, particularly in North America, its largest region. LVMH and Stellantis alone shaved more than €6 billion in profits from the CAC 40 compared to the first half of 2023.

In terms of ranking, we have summarized it in the table below, which is based very precisely on the consolidated net profit group share of each company, the “true” profit indicator.

In the end, Totalenergies once again became the CAC 40 group with the highest profit over the half-year (around 8.8 billion euros). Last year Stellantis had dominated this ranking. Carlos Tavares’ group fell to fourth place, overtaken by LVMH and BNP Paribas.

Let us recall that net income remains a very imperfect indicator of a company’s performance because it is often affected by exceptional items that do not necessarily have an impact on its financial health. “Net income is not the best indicator, but it is not a bad indicator either. It must be cleaned of exceptional items,” explained Pascal Quiry, professor of Finance at HEC Paris and co-author of the corporate finance review Vernimmen, to News Bulletin 247 last year.

Note: Totalenergies, STMicroelectronics and ArcelorMittal’s profits are originally expressed in dollars and have been converted into euros by us. For Dassault Systèmes we have used the non-IFRS net income.

By Sabrina Sadgui and Julien Marion