Roche Holding AG’s share price up, posts a 7% drop in first-quarter profit on strong Swiss franc

The largest cancer drug manufacturer in the world – Roche Holding AG made an official statement today, revealing that its profit over the first fiscal quarter declined by 7% as the strength of the Swiss franc that offset the companys new drugs rising sales.

According to the statement of Roche Holding AG, the companys net income fell from 6 billion Swiss francs over the same period a year earlier to 5.6 Swiss francs (6.3 billion dollars). The companys earnings per share excluding some items amounted to 7.57 francs, which surpassed the median analysts forecasts of 7.43 francs. In the quarter ended March 31st, the company posted a decline in its overall group sales that fell to 11.496 billion Swiss francs (13.06 billion dollars). Its sales increased by 5% excluding the currency impact.

Roche Holding AG revealed that the sales of its new breast cancer treatments Perjeta and Kadcyla increased as they gained more acceptance from doctors. According to the the companys statement the sales of its other cancer drug Xeloda and its hepatitis treatment Pegasys slowed down. Roche said that the sales of Perjeta over the first six months of the year increased by 276% and reached 388 million Swiss francs (429.68 million dollars). Kadcylas sales, on the other hand, reached 227 million Swiss francs in comparison to the 83-million-Swiss-franc sales over the same period a year ago.

Roche Holding AG also confirmed its projection for the full-year revenue growth, saying it is expected to be at the low- to mid-single digit, in line with a 5% increase over the first six months of the year.

One of the analysts, who work at Helvea SA – Ms. Odile Rundquist commented in a telephone interview for Bloomberg: “The highlight is the uptake of the new drugs.”

Roche Holding AG was gaining 1.09% to trade at 269.40 Swiss francs per share by 11:39 GMT, marking a one year change of +15.42%. According to the information published on the Financial Times, the 24 analysts offering 12-month price targets for Roche Holding AG have a median target of 290.00, with a high estimate of 335.00 and a low estimate of 246.00. The median estimate represents a 8.82% increase from the last price of 266.50.