Merck KgaA, the prominent German science and technology company, disclosed that its second-quarter profit after income tax fell by 14.3% to €605 million, compared to €706 million in the same period last year.
Earnings per share (EPS) declined by 13.6% to €1.40 from the previous year's €1.62. However, the earnings per share pre remained unchanged at €2.20.
The company's EBITDA pre decreased organically by 0.8% to €1.5 billion, with an EBITDA pre margin of 28.2%.
Despite the decline in profit, net sales for the quarter slightly increased by 0.9% to €5.35 billion from €5.30 billion in the previous year. Organically, group net sales grew by 1.7%.
Looking forward to fiscal year 2024, Merck has maintained its outlook as revised on July 27. The company now anticipates earnings per share pre to range between €8.20 and €9.30, an upward adjustment from the previous forecast of €8.05 to €9.10.
EBITDA pre is projected to be between €5.8 billion and €6.4 billion, indicating an organic growth rate of 4% to 10%. This is a slight increase from the earlier expected range of €5.7 billion to €6.3 billion.
Additionally, the company forecasts net sales to fall within the range of €20.7 billion to €22.1 billion, reflecting organic growth of 2% to 5%. The earlier projection was between €20.6 billion and €22.1 billion.
