Roche Shares Fall on Lower Sales Due to Currency Hit

By Adria Calatayud

Shares in Roche Holding fell after the company reported lower sales for the first nine months and flagged a bigger hit from currency movements than previously expected.

At 0911 GMT on Thursday, Roche's shares traded 3.2% lower at CHF241.65, having earlier fallen as much as 5%.

The Swiss pharmaceutical giant's sales for the first nine months of the year fell 6% to 44.05 billion Swiss francs ($49 billion).

Roche confirmed its outlook for 2023, which calls for a sales decline in the low single percentage digit range and a core earnings per share performance along those lines, both at constant-exchange rates.

This might be seen as disappointing given that a modest guidance upgrade was widely anticipated going into the third-quarter update, Jefferies analysts wrote in a note to clients.

The company said exchange rates as of Sept. 30, if maintained until the end of the year, would translate into a hit to its bottom lines bigger than what it forecast in July.

Roche now expects currency impacts resulting in declines of 7% in sales, 10% in core operating profit and 12% in core EPS. In July, it estimated the currency impacts for core operating profit and core EPS would be 9% and 10%, respectively, based on exchange rates as of June 30.

Stifel analyst Eric Le Berrigaud estimated in a research note the currency impact, together with other factors, could result in Roche's core EPS falling about 15% to CHF17.25.

Analysts polled by FactSet forecast Roche's 2023 adjusted EPS at CHF18.56.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 19, 2023 05:40 ET (09:40 GMT)

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