Sartorius's Shares Drop on Outlook Cut, Preliminary 3Q Declines

By Andrea Figueras

Shares in Sartorius tumbled Friday after the company downgraded its full-year targets and posted lower preliminary sales and earnings for the first nine months of 2023.

At 0754 GMT, Sartorius's shares were down 12% to EUR282.20, while shares in its Sartorius Stedim Biotech subsidiary also traded lower at 13%.

The German life-sciences group now expects sales to fall around 17%, while it previously saw a decline in the low to mid-teens percentage range, and estimates the underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin slightly above 28%, down from a prior forecast around 30%, it said. The company also said its mid-term guidance is under review.

Sartorius did little to improve a weak investor sentiment ahead of its third-quarter results, although the outlook cut was broadly in line with expectations, Citi analyst Vineet Agrawal said in a research note.

The stock is likely to be volatile until trends stabilize and there is more clarity, though the mid-and-long term growth trends of the industry remain intact, Jefferies analyst James Vane-Tempest wrote in a research note.

Consolidated revenue for the first nine months of the year fell around 16% to 2.5 million euros ($2.6 million) in constant currencies and the underlying Ebitda dropped to EUR733 million from EUR1.05 billion last year, Sartorius said.

While the decline in the bioprocess-solutions division seems to be bottoming out, the magnitude of the miss in the lab-products-and-services segment was probably larger than expected, Citi said.

Write to Andrea Figueras at andrea.figueras@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 13, 2023 04:23 ET (08:23 GMT)

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