BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p) posted higher-than-expected operating profit in the third quarter, boosted by European and Chinese buyers of its luxury Audi and Porsche models.
Underlying earnings at Europe's largest automotive group jumped 16 percent to 3.23 billion euros (2.54 billion pounds), VW said on Thursday, beating the top-end forecast of 3.09 billion euros in a Reuters poll of analysts.
Buoyed by a recovery in core European markets, the German group stuck to its guidance for a 2014 operating profit margin between 5.5 percent and 6.5 percent, after 5.9 percent last year.
It also confirmed a forecast for revenue within a range of plus or minus 3 percent of last year's record 197 billion euros. Quarterly revenues were up 4.1 percent at 48.9 billion euros, VW said.
Volkswagen's stock rose 3.7 percent to 168.05 euros in early trade, outperforming a 1.9 percent increase by the autos sector <.SXAP>.
VW's third-quarter group vehicle sales were up 4.1 percent, at a record 2.43 million autos, with volume growth in China and Europe offsetting declines in the Americas, keeping VW on course to hit a 10 million car-sales target four years early in 2014.
Quarterly deliveries of Audi and Porsche models, which account for about two thirds of VW group earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), were up 7.2 percent and 25 percent respectively to 429,250 and 47,800 cars.
But operating profit at the core passenger-car brand, VW's biggest unit by sales and revenue, has tumbled as the mass-market division grapples with stagnant sales, high fixed costs and spending on technology such as VW's MQB modular production platform.
To spur earnings power at the namesake brand which is key to VW's global expansion, Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn in July announced a goal to cut costs by 5 billion euros per year from 2017, the centrepiece of an efficiency drive spanning the twelve-brand group.
(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Georgina Prodhan and Maria Sheahan)