FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Merck KGaA on Thursday reported a gain of 11.9% in adjusted quarterly earnings, helped by cost-cutting measures and temporarily lower spending on drug research and development.
The German pharma and technology company said in a statement that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), adjusted for special items, came in at 1.62 billion euros ($1.71 billion) in the third quarter, above an average analyst estimate of 1.55 billion in a consensus posted on the company’s website.
Merck, which previously predicted 2024 sales between 20.7 billion and 22.1 billion euros, said it was now guiding for the lower half of that range.
It added that full-year adjusted EBITDA would likely be around the mid-point of its target range of 5.8 billion to 6.4 billion euros, compared with 5.9 billion reported for 2023.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Rachel More)
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