Stock market developments in 2023 were dominated by geopolitical crises, interventionist fiscal policies and persistently high inflation. A banking crisis at the start of the year resulted in further consolidation of major European banks and led to uncertainty on the markets. Thanks to rapid stabilization of the banking market and prospects of a turnaround in interest rates, the markets recovered early on in the year. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed by the United States Congress in 2022 provided a strong stimulus to the manufacturing industry as the year progressed. The ongoing Ukraine war continued to distort global energy and crude oil markets. In Germany the ongoing high energy costs had a negative impact in particular. Domestic demand in China fell short of its potential while demand in Europe was weak overall. This resulted in a high volume of Chinese imports. European companies, in particular, saw strong price pressure for mass-produced products. The European construction industry, and especially the German one, was held back by high interest rates, an increase in the price of construction materials and high planning uncertainty due to changing political requirements.
As already seen in 2022, continued high energy prices as well as increases in prices for specific raw materials, starting products and logistics led to production declines, plant shutdowns and disruptions in supplies for downstream production steps in the chemical industry. These factors also affected the earnings performance at WACKER. Volumes in the chemical industry were down significantly on the prior-year figures. Accelerated capacity expansion for the solar industry in China also had a negative impact. Polysilicon prices fell by almost 60 percent from the middle of the second quarter to the end of 2023.
3.00
euros
Proposed dividend per share for 2023
Over the course of the year, WACKER’s share price first reflected speculation of a government-sponsored European solar industry reshoring initiative and was then visibly boosted by the US Inflation Reduction Act. Expectations of an industrial electricity price in Germany initially had a positive effect. As the year progressed, the share price weakened with the expected incentives not being implemented.
In 2023, Germany’s DAX index increased by around 20 percent, and its MDAX index by around 8 percent. In the same period, WACKER stock declined by about 4 percent.
At the start of 2023, WACKER stock stood at €119.40 (year-end closing price on December 30, 2022). The share price climbed until the end of February, driven by the optimistic expectations surrounding the reshoring of the European solar industry, before reaching a high of €159.25 on February 23, 2023. The divergence between political goals for the solar industry and related market expectations on the one hand, and the absence of concrete incentives on the other ultimately led to disillusionment. The payment of a historically high dividend in the amount of €12.00 following the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting 2023 impacted WACKER’s share price performance in May. In the second quarter, prices for solar-grade polysilicon began to decline. As a result, investors lowered their expectations for WACKER’s business performance in the second half of the year. The worsening business conditions meant that the company had to revise its forecast on July 18, 2023. The second half of the year was dominated by an ongoing difficult market environment in the chemical industry, which resulted in a series of profit warnings across the sector. In its Q3 Interim Report, WACKER confirmed and detailed its earnings projections for the full year. Till the end of 2023, business conditions did not recover. WACKER stock ended trading on December 29, 2023, at €114.30.
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€ |
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Year-high (on Feb. 23, 2023) |
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159.25 |
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Year-low (on Dec. 13, 2023) |
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108.35 |
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Year-end closing price (on Dec. 30, 2022) |
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119.40 |
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Year-end closing price (on Dec. 29, 2023) |
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114.30 |
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Performance for the year (without dividend) (%) |
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-4.27 |
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Year-end market capitalization (shares outstanding; prior year 5.93) (billion) |
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5.67 |
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Average daily trading volume1 (prior year: 18.1) (million) |
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18.3 |
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Earnings per share from continuing operations (prior year: 25.18) |
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6.31 |
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Dividend per share (proposal) |
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3.00 |
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Dividend yield2 (%) |
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2.3 |
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WACKER Share Performance in 2023 (Indexed to 100)1
Dividend Payment of €12.00 per Share
At the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting of Wacker Chemie AG on May 17, 2023, all Executive Board and Supervisory Board proposals were adopted by large majorities overall. The dividend per dividend-bearing share agreed at the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting for 2022 was €12.00 (2021: €8.00). The dividend yield based on WACKER’s average share price in 2022 was 8.6 percent (2021: 6.0 percent).
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€ |
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20231 |
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2022 |
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2021 |
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Dividend |
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3.00 |
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12.00 |
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8.00 |
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Dividend yield (%) |
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2.3 |
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8.6 |
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6.0 |
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Net result for the year (allocable to WACKER’s shareholders) (million) |
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313.6 |
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1,251.0 |
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806.9 |
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Dividend payout (million) |
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149.0 |
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596.1 |
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397.4 |
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Distribution ratio (%)2 |
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47.5 |
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47.6 |
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49.3 |
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Shareholder Structure
Wacker Chemie AG’s largest shareholder continues to be Dr. Alexander Wacker Familiengesellschaft mbH, Munich, which holds over 50 percent of the voting shares in Wacker Chemie AG (2022: over 50 percent). Blue Elephant Holding GmbH (Bad Wiessee, Germany) also had no voting-share changes to report in 2023, with its holding in Wacker Chemie AG remaining at over 10 percent (2022: over 10 percent).
Shareholder Structure
in %
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ISIN |
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DE000WCH8881 |
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WKN |
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WCH888 |
Frankfurt Stock Exchange |
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WCH |
Bloomberg |
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CHM/WCH.GR |
Reuters |
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CHE/WCHG.DE |
Initial public offering |
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April 10, 2006 |
Capital stock |
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€260,763,000 |
Trading segment |
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Regulated market (Prime Standard), |
Category of shares |
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Bearer shares |
Number of shares (Dec. 31, 2023) |
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52,152,600 |
Number of shares outstanding |
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49,677,983 |
Paying agent |
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Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt/Main |
Market Capitalization and Weighting (as of December 31, 2023)
WACKER’s year-end market capitalization based on shares outstanding was €5.67 billion (December 30, 2022: €5.93 billion). As a result, WACKER is currently ranked 31 (free float market capitalization) in the MDAX among the 50 companies in the index.
Trading Volume
In the reporting year, the average daily trading volume for WACKER stock on Xetra, Germany’s regional exchanges, Tradegate and Quotrix was approximately 138,859 shares, which was around 6.2 percent above the prior-year figure of around 130,756 shares. Average daily turnover for the shares was €18.27 million, up slightly year over year (2022: €18.1 million).
WACKER Communicates Closely with Capital Markets
Key elements of corporate strategy are sustainability and a focus on specialty chemicals. These priorities are reinforced through continuous and open communication with institutional investors, private investors and analysts. Our exchanges with investors over the course of the year were dominated by political topics relating to the solar industry and economic issues. Questions raised primarily involved energy and raw material cost trends, the contract portfolio for solar-grade polysilicon and competition issues. Our sustainability strategy, capacity expansion for semiconductor-grade polysilicon and our biotech business developments also met with great interest.
The number of analysts covering WACKER was 18, slightly lower than in the previous year. The consensus price target of analysts for WACKER stock declined during the year. At the beginning of the year, the average price target for WACKER stock was €154.11 (18 estimates, December 2022). At year-end, the average price was €145.56 (18 estimates) and was a bit more than 5 percent lower than at the beginning of the year.
Banks and Investment Firms Covering and Rating WACKER
- Baader Helvea
- Bank of America
- Berenberg
- Citigroup
- DZ Bank AG
- Exane BNP Paribas
- HSBC
- J.P. Morgan
- Jefferies
- Landesbank Baden−Württemberg
- Morgan Stanley
- Oddo BHF
- On Field Investment Research
- SRH Alster Research
- Société Générale
- Stifel
- UBS
- Warburg Research
As of the end of December 2023
On our website, we regularly report consensus analyst expectations for the current year. Moreover, our website offers extensive information on WACKER stock. In addition to the annual report, other financial reports, a Fact Book, presentations and publications (viewable online or downloadable), our website lists all our key financial calendar dates and contact persons for your questions. Videos of our annual press conference and other events are also available for online viewing, or as an audio stream.
