(BFM Stock Exchange) – The publication season of the residents of the Paris index ended this week with the results of Engie and Bouygues. While one could fear a lot, given the uncertainty caused by customs duties, the publications and the indications delivered by the groups of the CAC 40 were not so badly received as this by the markets.

The results season promised to be at great risk for the CAC 40. This wave of publications occurred just after Donald Trump’s announcements on reciprocal customs duties. LVMH, the first group to return its copy, had published on April 14, barely twelve days later.

Barclays, feared that, on a European scale, many lowering of objectives arise, with the threat of heavy sanctions on the part of the markets.

Ultimately, this season on the CAC 40 but also in Europe and Wall Street was not so bad, without being radiant. “The equity markets have reacted well to quarterly publications despite the lack of visibility of businesses”, notes Ostrum AM.

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Customs duties in the background

The different groups, certainly, had trouble giving visibility to their shareholders. For many of them, formulating prospects for the test of customs duties was impossible. Just because this thorny file evolves almost every day.

Safran director general, Olivier Andriès, had finally explained it fairly well to analysts, during the conference following the publication of his company. “You see that the elements change every week or even sometimes every day, which is why we prefer not to communicate on the quantification of an impact, because it is based on constantly changing assumptions,” he said.

Others managed to reassure on this subject, without getting too wet. This is the case of Airbus which, without giving specific figures, indicated that the direct impacts on date “were manageable” and did not call into question its objectives. Which had been very well perceived by analysts. Stellantis, for his part, had no choice but to suspend his objectives, as did his American rival Ford also.

To return to the CAC 40 in its entirety, we sought to determine which groups have best successfully the test of the first publication of the 2025 exercise as well as those who, on the contrary, are most spent through.

Let us recall in passing that certain companies have delivered complete accounts, such as banks, others only turnover, such as luxury companies.

Eurofins in mind ahead of L’Oréal

To take the temperature, we based ourselves on the stock market reaction according to the announcement of the company. Either the same day for companies publishing in the morning or the next day for those revealing accounts or income in the evening after the closing of the market.

Ultimately, the assessment is relatively encouraging. More than 20 groups (exactly 23) saw their action progress in the wake of their publications when 17 have accused a drop. The average variation on the CAC 40 narrowly falls into the green (+0.04%). Not enough to save, certainly, but nothing catastrophic.

The best performance is signed by Eurofins which saw its title increase by 12% in the wake of its activity in the first quarter. Rather disappointing in recent years, with an action that has been one of the strongest decreases in the CAC 40 in 2022,2023 and 2024, the analysis laboratory has gave growth a little higher than expectations in the first quarter.

The independent AlphaValue design office notes above all that the confirmation of the 2025 objectives, much higher than the consensus, impressed investors. Another positive point: the company assured that customs duties will not have a sensitive direct impact on its cost structure.

The performance of L’Oréal, an action less volatile than Eeurofins and therefore less likely to fly, is to be distinguished. The cosmetics group takes second place, with an increase of 6.3% during the session following the announcement of its turnover.

The company led by Nicolas Hieronimus clearly defeated anticipations, with a growth of 3.5% in comparable data or 2.6% by excluding exceptional effects, when consensus tapped on an increase of 1.1%. No luxury group has been hoping for expectations, which underlines the performance of the company. “A good start to the year,” sums up Royal Bank of Canada.

The podium is completed by Accor, second ex-aequo, with an increase of 6.3%. The hotel group is not used to knowing big variations after its publications. But the growth of 9.2% of its income with more encouraging trends in its “luxury and lifestyle” division has packaged investors. “There is nothing very new but the publication presents lots of small positive elements that reassure,” summed up an analyst.

Note that some big names in the CAC 40 have not failed in their reputation. This is the case of Safran (+4.26%), always supported by the growth of its post-sales services in aeronautics, Saint-Gobain (+4.65%), which delivered better than expected volumes, or publicis (+3.9%), which never ceases to beat expectations on its growth.

Lvmh in the hard

Capgemini (+5.7%) also released a stronger activity than anticipated, which reassured the market, while the digital services sector was particularly tested during this season of results.

Airbus (+5.3%) delivered results much better than expected and reassured customs duties.

Société Générale (+3.75%) signed the best results in French banks far enough, while Renault (+4.38%) demonstrated that it may be the best armed European automobile group for this year 2025.

On the side of the drops, it is striking to see LVMH finish in the last place. The luxury group accused a decline in its sales of 3% in data comparable in the first quarter when analysts hoped for 1%, according to Stifel. Such a gap turns out to be extremely rare in a group accustomed to appearing on the honor table and not on the bench of “bad students”.

A few days after the publication, HSBC abandoned its advice on purchase on the group, LVMH having been less resilient than the bank hoped. If the establishment says it is confident for the flagship division of the group, namely fashion and leather goods, it does not expect growth before 2026 …

Ultimately, LVMH saw its action fall by 7.8% in the wake of the publication of its activity in the first quarter. This also led him to abandon his crown of first capitalization of the Paris Stock Exchange in Hermès. The latter suffered a little less (-3.2%) but the Merier-Maroquerier also disappointed with growth of only 7% in comparable data when investors were 8% -9% for the first quarter, according to Deutsche Bank.

Second higher decrease, Teleperformance (-7.3%) paid dearly on the activity of its specialized service division. Thierry Gautier, president of GSD Gestion, judged News Bulletin 247 on BFM that the market sanction had been exaggerated, while growth “was suitable” in the first quarter.

Schneider Electric (-6.4%) finished on the “podium” of the highest drops after delivering too fair growth, from 7.4%in comparable data, against much higher expectations, at 8.9%. However, it was “many quarters” that Schneider had not disappointed, underlined Oddo BHF.