GSK sees smaller 2021 profit fall after Q2 beat

GSK forecast a smaller drop in 2021 profit on Wednesday as the drugmaker beat second-quarter earnings expectations, buoyed by a pick up at its vaccines business as routine hospital visits recovered amid an of easing pandemic restrictions. The British company, which is spinning off its consumer health arm to focus on improving its pharmaceuticals business, said it made adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 28.1 pence in the three months to the end of June on sales of 8.1 billion pounds ($11.2 billion).

GSK forecast a smaller drop in 2021 profit on Wednesday as the drugmaker beat second-quarter earnings expectations, buoyed by a pick up at its vaccines business as routine hospital visits recovered amid an of easing pandemic restrictions.

The British company, which is spinning off its consumer health arm to focus on improving its pharmaceuticals business, said it made adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 28.1 pence in the three months to the end of June on sales of 8.1 billion pounds ($11.2 billion). Analysts had on average expected adjusted EPS of 19.9 pence on turnover of 7.56 billion pounds, according to a company-compiled consensus https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/investors/analyst-consensus/analyst-consensus.

"We expect this positive momentum to continue through the second half of the year driving us towards the better end of our earnings guidance range for 2021, and meaningful performance improvement in 2022," CEO Emma Walmsley said in a statement. The world's biggest vaccines maker by sales has forecast adjusted EPS will decline by a mid to high-single-digit percentage this year.

Pressure to show sustainable growth has mounted on Walmsley after years of underperformance at GSK's pharmaceuticals business. The company has also locked horns with activist investor Elliott over its future after the spin-off next year. ($1 = 0.7206 pounds)

 

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