GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK), a major British pharmaceutical company, announced a significant drop in its profits for the last quarter on Wednesday, despite an increase in revenue. Nonetheless, they have raised their dividend and forecast improved results for the 2024 financial year.
GSK's CEO, Emma Walmsley, revealed plans for a significant expansion of their product portfolio. She stated, "By 2025, we aim to have at least 12 new major launches. These will include Vaccines and Speciality Medicines to treat infectious diseases, HIV, respiratory conditions, and different types of cancer. Following this progress, we expect 2024 to deliver another year of significant sales and earnings growth. Also, we are lifting our growth outlooks for 2026 and 2031."
The pre-tax profit for the last quarter dropped sharply from the previous year’s 1.63 billion pounds to a meager 379 million pounds. Consequently, the earnings per share also took a hit, going down from 36.5 pence the previous year to 8.5 pence.
However, the adjusted pre-tax profit rose to 1.56 billion pounds compared to 1.36 billion pounds a year earlier. Likewise, the adjusted earnings per share rose from the previous year’s 25.8 pence to 28.9 pence.
The company’s turnover increased from 7.38 billion pounds the previous year to 8.05 billion pounds.
Regarding dividends, GSK announced its plans to declare a higher dividend of 16p for the last quarter and 58p per share for the entire year of 2023.
As for the 2024 financial forecast, the company expects an increase of between 6 to 9 percent in adjusted earnings per share, between 7 to 10 percent in adjusted operating profit, and between 5 to 7 percent in turnover — all these estimates are based on constant exchange rates and excluding any impact of solutions related to COVID-19.
By 2031, GSK hopes to achieve sales of over 38 billion pounds on a risk-adjusted basis and at constant exchange rates. This forecast is an increase of 5 billion pounds compared to the estimate given in 2021.
