23rd Jul 2015 11:16
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shire PLC Thursday upped its full year earnings guidance as it posted a decline in pretax profit for the first half of 2015, and increased its interim dividend.
Shire now expects to post full year non generally accepted accounting principles diluted earnings per American depositary share growth in the mid-to-high single digit range.
Previously it had guided for non GAAP diluted earnings per ADS growth in the mid single digits.
Additionally, Shire expressed confidence in its USD10 billion in product sales by 2020, and also said it expects to meet its target of USD6.5 billion of product sales in 2016.
The pharmaceutical group posted a pretax profit of USD591.2 million, down from USD653.1 million a year before, as revenue rose to USD3.05 billion from USD2.85 billion, but this was offset by higher research and development costs and selling, general and administrative expenses. The increase in operating costs was partly due to the first full quarter integrating the operating costs of NPS Pharmaceuticals.
It posted product sales of USD2.90 billion, up from USD2.78 billion.
Shire proposed an interim dividend 4.21 cents per share, up from 3.83 cents in the previous year.
Shares in Shire are trading down 2.1% at 5,350.00 pence Thursday afternoon, one of the worst performers in the FTSE 100.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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