Merck: shares down 3% after in-line second-quarter earnings

(CercleFinance.com) - Germany's Merck confirmed its full-year forecasts on Thursday after reporting in line second-quarter results, although this didn't help to lift the shares.


Second-quarter "EBITDA pre," the key financial indicator used to steer operating business, declined by 13.7% to 920 million euros, mainly due to the impact of negative foreign exchange effects.

Sales grew by 0.5% to 3.7 billion euros, slightly above the consensus.

Organic sales growth reached 5.2%, thanks to sales of products and services for the pharmaceutical sector and sales of the immuno-oncology medicine Bavencio.

For 2018, Merck said it continues to expect "moderate" full-year organic growth of 3% to 5% in net sales relative to the previous year.

The Darmstadt-based company continues to expect that "EBITDA pre" will be somewhere between 3.75 billion euros and 4 billion euros this year.

This set of results was frowned upon by investors, with the share falling over 3% in early-morning trading today.

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