RHHBY Roche Holdings Ltd AG (QX)

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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