In 2023, CAC 40 will still be very profitable, shareholders will benefit – Liberation

All good for big companies and their shareholders. Very well, too, and for the third year in a row. We can once again talk about superprofits: in 2023, the CAC 40 companies – 38 out of 40 to be precise, because the financial years of Alstom and Pernod Ricard have stopped – have accumulated 146.2 billion euros in net profit. Even better than 2022, but slightly below the record of 2021 (157 billion), the first year where French companies collectively made a profit of 100 billion, thanks in particular to Vivendi, which is rich from the sale of Universal Music.

As of 2022, the champion of the Paris stock exchange is TotalEnergies, with profits of around 20 billion euros. Luxury sector groups are also outperforming: Hermès, Kering, L’Oreal and LVMH alone total around 29 billion euros. Banks showed a 17% rise in their profits, with nearly 20 billion euros for the leading trio, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and Societe Generale. Automobiles are sinking, Renault posted a profit of 2.2 billion euros in 2022 after a loss of 350 million and Stellantis posted a record profit of 18.6 billion euros – the second biggest result in the CAC Index 40. In third place, LVMH reported a profit of 15.2 billion euros, up 8%.

A historic summit

His shareholders benefited greatly: CAC 40 companies paid him 97.1 billion, two-thirds of which in the form of cash dividends and the remaining third in the form of share repurchases – an operation that allowed them to increase their stock market prices – according to the financial letter. Verniman. “What is the highest level ever since we did this study”, Write its authors. The previous record was 80.1 billion euros through 2022, again two-thirds in dividends and the rest in share buybacks.

Six groups alone distributed half of the total: Total Energy (18.4 billion), BNP Paribas (9.7 billion) and LVMH (7.1 billion) accounted for 37%, and if we add Stallantis, Axa and Sanofi, we exceed 50% of the amount redistributed. let’s go . In total, 26 groups have made significant share buybacks (at least 100 million euros) in 2023, as much as last year, led by TotalEnergies, thanks to the rise in oil prices, and BNP Paribas, thanks to its retail sales. Banking in the United States.

Logically, the CAC 40 crossed 8,000 points for the first time in its history on March 7. The Paris market is not the only record holder: from New York to Tokyo via Frankfurt, Amsterdam or Copenhagen, many indices have reached their historical peak in 2024. But the total market value of the CAC 40 has reached 2,362 billion. Euro, much more than the top 40 German or British companies.