When Novo Nordisk reports earnings on Thursday, investors will be focused on sales of its blockbuster anti-obesity medicines, which have captured the cultural imagination over the past year.
The earnings report comes amid what has been a surprisingly grim two weeks for the pharmaceutical sector: Investors have sold off shares of virtually every large drugmaker that has reported earnings in recent days. That has led to share-price losses for Sanofi (SNY), Amgen (AMGN), and other companies. Investors have even dumped shares of companies as they reported generally good news, as was the case with GSK ( GSK ) on Wednesday.
While Novo and Lilly’s shares have skyrocketed, the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG), which tracks drug stocks, is down 1.1% on the year. Investors’ reaction to Novo’s third-quarter earnings Thursday will show whether that trend continues. headtopics.com
At the time, Novo said it expects sales for 2023 to climb between 32% and 38% from 2022 to 2023, up from its prior estimate of an increase of between 27% and 33%. It projected full-year operating profits to grow between 40% and 46%, up from its previous estimate of between 31% and 37%.
Wall Street analysts expect Novo to report earnings of 4.81 Danish krone per share on sales of 57.8 billion Danish krone ($8.2 billion) for the third quarter, according to FactSet. Sales were 45.6 billion Danish krone, or $6 billion, in the same quarter last year. headtopics.com