May 19 - Fast-growing Danish jewellery maker Pandora missed forecasts with a 55 percent rise in first-quarter profit as price rises failed to match surging gold and silver costs, hitting its shares on Thursday.

Ring from Pandora's extensive jewellery collection

The German market disappointed in the first quarter and Pandora's heavy reliance on one product, charms and charm bracelets, remained a cause for concern, analysts said. Pandora, which makes jewellery in Thailand, said it had implemented price rise in most markets and was keeping its 2011 outlook intact. Plans to open more than 250 new stores this year were unchanged, it said.

Pandora shares were down 15 percent to 216 crowns by 0940 GMT after touching 207 crowns earlier, just above the lowest level since stock was sold at 220 crowns in an initial public offering ahead of its Copenhagen bourse debut in October.

"Overall, the result is on the weak side," Alm. Brand analyst Michael Jorgensen said. "They have a problem in Germany which is pulling them down today. Their exposure to charms has also gone in the wrong direction, and investors see a risk lying there. That is not exactly a positive development."

Pandora's exposure to charms and charm bracelets in the first quarter rose, with sales of that product category now accounting for 84.3 percent of total sales, up from 79.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010.

"Germany disappoints, and German consumers are still reluctant. That market accounts for about 10 percent of sales," Sydbank analyst Soren Hansen said.

Germany and Australia were the only two markets to record single-digit percentage revenue growth, while all other markets saw double-digit growth.

AMERICAS & ASIA GROW, EUROPE LAGS

Earnings before interest and tax rose to 637 million Danish crowns, missing a forecast for 674 million in a Reuters poll in which estimates were in a 591-750 million range.

"We experienced strong underlying growth in the first quarter and implemented price increases in most markets to balance the impact of rising gold and silver prices," chief executive Mikkel Vendelin Olesen said.

"In general, there is some impact on volumes in the two to four months following a price increase, after which volumes gradually recover," Olesen said.

Spot silver prices have risen 15 percent this year while spot gold XAU= has risen 5.4 percent.

Pandora said while feedback from customers had been cautiously positive overall regarding price increases, it had seen a moderate slowdown in some markets.

Performance in the Americas, including the United States which is Pandora's largest market, and Asia was in line with first-quarter results, but some European markets developed more moderately, the company said.

Pandora said it still expected 2011 revenue growth of at least 30 percent and an EBITDA margin of at least 40 percent.

"Margin development is in line with the year-end outlook as a result of our anticipated volumes for 2011 being nearly fully hedged against gold and silver prices," it said.

First-quarter sales rose 41 percent to 1.75 billion crowns, compared with a forecast for 1.81 billion.

(Reporting by Mette Fraende, additional reporting by Shida Chayesteh; Editing by Hans Peters)