Zurich (awp) – The ophthalmic care and devices giant Alcon appeared on Wednesday in the bad half of the flagship index of the Zurich market. The Geneva-Texan multinational refined its projections for the whole year downwards the previous evening, at the end of a less buoyant quarter than expected.
At 9:23 a.m., the Alcon registered stock fell 0.9% to 76.44 Swiss francs on average, in an SMI down 0.20%.
Quarterly revenue increased 6% to $2.43 billion. The basic Ebitda margin stood at 20.6% compared to 19.5% in the third quarter of 2023. Net income stood at $263 (204) million and net earnings per share at 0.81 (0. 66) dollar.
Alcon now expects sales of $9.8 to $9.9 billion, compared to $9.9 to $10.1 billion previously. Core Ebitda margin is expected to reach 20.5-21.0% (previously: 20.5-21.5%) and core earnings per share $3.00-3.05 (previously $3.00-3.05). 10 dollars).
Evoking anecdotal corrections, Graham Doyle recommends on behalf of UBS to take advantage of any bout of weakness in the price to gain exposure to Alcon. The analyst emphasizes that the results presented are moving in the right direction, even if less quickly than expected.
The unexpected publication of the results shortly before the close of the Swiss Stock Exchange on Tuesday had already caused a plunge of more than 5% in Alcon shares, observes Sibylle Bischofberger at Vontobel. For its part, it welcomes slightly better quarterly profitability than expected but prefers to remain neutral on a stock for which it perceives a fair long-term valuation of around 88 Swiss francs.
At the Basel Cantonal Bank, Elmar Sieber is more circumspect, anticipating a knee-jerk reaction from the markets to the moderation of ambitions. The expert also considers, however, that the recent price drops are out of proportion with the changes in the roadmap. If he lowers his price target, he maintains his neutral assessment of the stock.
Daniel Jelovcan, for Zurich Cantonal Bank, points out that “almost” meeting expectations is generally not enough for growing companies like Alcon. The analyst nonetheless sticks to his recommendation of the stock as a buy.
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