(Bloomberg) -- Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc saw sales of its luxury cars dive in the first quarter as the company wound down production of its older Vantage sports car model.

The shares slid the most in six months after the British carmaker said it shipped 945 cars in the period, a 26% decline from the prior year. Revenue and adjusted profit fell, missing analysts’ estimates. The company stuck to its guidance for the year as it prepares to roll out new models. 

The slump reflects the end of production and delivery of some of Aston Martin’s core models, Executive Chairman Lawrence Stroll said in a statement. The company has started making new versions of the Vantage and the DBX707 SUV, which are yet to go on sale. Aston Martin needs these new models to help it manage costs, Goldman Sachs analyst George Galliers said in a note, as he cut his forecasts.

Revenue dropped 10% to £267.7 million ($334 million), Aston Martin said Wednesday, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization slid 34% to £19.9 million.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says:

Aston’s 1Q across-the-board miss, with significant cash burn taking net debt to over £1 billion, vastly reduces reserves and casts doubt on the company’s ability to achieve its targeted positive free cash in 2H. That’s continuing to be an overhang on the stock. The cash goal can’t come soon enough, given four new model changeovers resulted in 1Q unit sales down 26%, though that mirrors weakness seen across the sector. Execution will be critical to ramping up new DB12, Vantage, and DBX707 and ensuring the DBS replacement and Valhalla are on time.

— Michael Dean, BI automotive analyst

Shares of Aston Martin declined as much as 14%, the most intraday since Nov. 1. They fell 7.6% to 137 pence as of 8:20 a.m. in London.

Stroll is working through a lengthy turnaround at Aston Martin and has been forced to repeatedly raise capital since rescuing the company in 2020, bringing in new shareholders such as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. In March, the company completed a £1.15 billion ($1.4 billion) refinancing to ease investor concerns about its debt burden, although it will continue to pay high interest rates on the new bonds. 

Aston Martin also confirmed Wednesday it will launch a new sports car with a V12 engine, as part of its strategy of introducing more models more frequently. It set plans for another special model aimed at the uber-rich later this year.

Aston Martin’s cars sold for an average of £253,000 in the period, 19% higher than the same quarter in 2023.

Stroll will soon have more help in his turnaround. Former Bentley Motors Ltd. boss Adrian Hallmark is joining as chief executive officer no later than Oct. 1, taking over from 77-year-old Amedeo Felisa to become the fourth CEO since Stroll arrived.

Aston Martin in February pushed back the launch of its first fully-electric car by a year to 2026 and is opting to make a line of plug-in hybrids to bridge the transition to battery-only vehicles. 

Last week, Bloomberg News reported that Stroll is in early talks to sell another minority stake in the Aston Martin F1 team that he owns separately to the luxury car maker. 

Read More: Stroll Mulls Selling Up to 25% Stake in Aston Martin F1 Team

(Updates with analyst’s comment, adds shares, details throughout)

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