SRT Sartorius AG

By Mauro Orru

Shares of Sartorius AG plunged in Thursday morning trading after the German pharmaceutical and laboratory equipment supplier posted lower revenue and earnings for the first quarter that came in below analysts' forecasts.

At 0730 GMT, Sartorius shares traded 10% lower at EUR347.80.

Sartorius posted sales revenue of 903.2 million euros ($989.5 million) in the first three months of 2023, down 12% on year due to the normalization of demand as Covid-19-related sales declined almost entirely.

"As expected, the vanishing Covid-19-related business and the ongoing destocking activities by customers are clearly reflected in the sales revenue development of the bioprocessing division, and to a lesser extent in the laboratory division," Sartorius Chief Executive Joachim Kreuzburg said in a statement.

Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization--Sartorius's preferred measure of profitability--slipped 22% to EUR271.9 million, generating a 30.1% margin. Reported net profit plunged to EUR93.1 million from EUR205.7 million.

"These figures are significantly lower than even our below-consensus expectations," Berenberg analyst Odysseas Manesiotis wrote in a note to clients. "As a heavily-shorted stock, and with little support for the shares today, we expect notable weakness from the shares."

Mr. Manesiotis had forecast sales revenue of EUR1.02 billion, while consensus stood at EUR1.05 billion. He had also expected underlying Ebitda of EUR341.9 million against consensus of EUR349.1 million.

Sartorius confirmed its guidance for the year, with sales revenue expected to increase in the low single-digit percentage range, and the underlying Ebitda margin around the prior-year level of 33.8%.

"We are monitoring the potential impact of the current global tensions on our industry very closely," Mr. Kreuzburg said.

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com; @MauroOrru94

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 20, 2023 03:55 ET (07:55 GMT)

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