Bayer AG raised its full-year earnings forecast, citing “much more favorable” foreign exchange rates, even as it reported first-quarter sales for its top-selling drug that missed analysts’ estimates.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and special items will grow by a “high-teens” percentage this year, compared with an earlier prediction of a low- to mid-teen gain, the German drugmaker said in a statement today. First-quarter sales of Xarelto, a blood thinner, rose 41 percent to 482 million euros ($540 million) from a year earlier, though that missed the average analyst estimate of 525 million euros.
