Sanofi notes upbeat sales and profit in Q1 on higher demand due to COVID-19

Sanofi (EPA: SAN) released its quarterly financial results on Friday that posted an increase in sales and profit attributed to the Coronavirus pandemic that has so far infected more than 2.7 million people worldwide and has caused over 193,000 deaths.

The pharmaceutical company recorded its net sales in the first quarter at £7.87 billion that marked a 6.6% increase at constant exchange rates (CER). At £2.04 billion, its net first-quarter income came in 16.1% stronger at CER. The company said that it made £1.43 of earnings per share in the recent quarter that translates to a 15.6% increase at CER.

Half Of Profit And Sales Growth Was Attributed To COVID-19

According to Sanofi, at least 50% of the increase in profit and sales in Q1 was attributed to the ongoing health crisis that fuelled the demand for OTC (over the counter) cough/cold medications. In the second quarter, the company added, it expects this increase to fade away that pushed its stock down 1.6% in the morning session. Later in the day, however, Sanofi recovered its entire daily loss in the stock market.

Revenue from Sanofi’s specialty care that includes Dupixent (eczema treatment) was reported 31.3% up in the first quarter. Consumer healthcare products, on the other hand, noted a 4.2% increase in sales ascribed mainly to painkillers like Buscopan and Doliprane.

Sanofi said in February that the French multinational pharmaceutical company is targeting a 5% growth in its EPS (earnings per share) in 2020.

Sanofi is currently engaged in two projects involving an evaluation of already approved vaccines for other diseases as a potential treatment for COVID-19. One of these projects is in collaboration with its British competitor, GlaxoSmithKline.

Sanofi Partners With Luminostics For A Self-Diagnosis App

Sanofi also announced recently to have partnered with Luminostics to ramp-up its efforts in developing an app that could help people perform a self-test for the identification of Coronavirus infection.

At £80 per share, Sanofi is currently around 2% up year to date in the stock market. On March 23^rd, the stock dropped to as low as £63 per share. In the past four weeks, however, Sanofi has recovered roughly 25%.

The pharmaceutical company performed fairly upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual gain of around 20%.

At the time of writing, the company is valued at £101 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 39.62.