Ørsted's fourth quarter financial report makes mixed reading, showing significant progress, albeit below analysts' expectation, and a solid outlook for 2022, says equity analyst at Sydbank Per Fogh following Wednesday's presentation.

He focuses his attention on the offshore division, which books earnings that are lower than expected – which is also due to a lower price from the divestment of Borssele 1&2.

"Earnings from partnerships in offshore are lower than expected, which is due to, among other things, Ørsted having to adjust the sales price of Borssele 1&2. When looking at the underlying operations in offshore, it's only a smidgen below expectations, and it's driven by, among other things, a negative effect of DKK 1bn from the very volatile energy prices," says Fogh to MarketWire.

The offshore wind division exited the fourth quarter with an operating profit of DKK 5.2bn. According to consensus estimates, analysts expected operating profits of DKK 7.5bn from this division.

The mixed nature of the financial report also makes it difficult to predict where the share is headed from the outset, says the Sydbank analyst while pointing out that it might underperform slightly when the market opens.

However, he points out that several of the negative elements in the fourth quarter report are one-off items that shouldn't weigh down the company in the long run.

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