Mercedes-Benz Shares Plunge to 52-Week Low as Cost-Cutting Drive Sparks Labor Showdown
29.06.2026 - 15:53:07 | boerse-global.de
Mercedes-Benz stock sank to its lowest point in a year on Monday, touching €42.64 as the German auto giant wrestles with a deepening profit crisis and mounting friction with its workforce. The shares, which have shed roughly 30% since the start of 2025, clawed back slightly to €42.88 by the close — still dangerously close to the fresh trough.
Management is moving aggressively to shore up margins. A long-planned special bonus payment of 18.4% of a month’s salary, originally due in July 2026 under a collective agreement, has been pushed back to 2027. The move is permitted because Mercedes’ net profit margin has fallen below the 2.3% threshold that triggers such a deferral. Roughly 90,000 employees in Germany are affected, and the works council has reacted with fury, accusing the board of unilaterally undermining morale.
At the same time, the company is pressing for longer working hours without extra pay, seeking to loosen the 35-hour week to reduce fixed costs. Talks with labor representatives are ongoing, and failure to reach an agreement could pile further pressure on the already battered stock.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Mercedes-Benz?
The financial damage is stark. For the full year 2025, net profit was cut in half to €5.3 billion from €10.4 billion a year earlier. Operating profit tumbled 57% to €5.82 billion. The first quarter of 2026 offered no relief: operating profit fell another 17% to €1.9 billion, as Chinese sales — a key profit engine — slumped 27% in the period. Rising energy costs, potential US tariffs, and a stagnating domestic economy have compounded the headwinds. The recent profit warning from rival BMW also dragged down the entire German auto sector, and Mercedes was caught in the downdraft.
Yet one analyst sees opportunity amid the wreckage. Jefferies upgraded the stock from “Hold” to “Buy” on Monday, citing encouraging signals from a recent investor conference and declaring the company’s 2026 targets achievable. Analyst Philippe Houchois cut his price target from €60 to €52, but argued that Mercedes shares had been sold off disproportionately following BMW’s warning and that the fundamentals merit a more positive valuation. He acknowledged the market consensus still needs time to adjust to the new interest-rate and demand environment.
Technically, the stock is deeply oversold. The relative strength index stood at 28.1, signaling that a near-term bounce is possible if upcoming operational data support the Jefferies thesis. For now, all eyes are on the negotiation table in Stuttgart: whether management can push through cost cuts without a full-blown labor confrontation will determine if this beaten-down stock can stage any kind of recovery.
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