Glaxo beats expectations

26th Oct 2011 12:01

Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline beat expectations with a rise in revenues in the third quarter.For the three month period, revenues were up by 4% in sterling terms to £7.104bn. Broker Credit Suisse had Glaxo down for flat sales during the period. Revenues for the first nine month of the current year were down by 4% to £20.409bn, but that was still ahead of Charles Stanley's prediction of a fall to £19.92bn.Earnings per share came in at 28.5p for the three month period and 85.8p for the nine months."The breadth and mix of GSK's product and geographic portfolio is helping the Group to mitigate economic volatility," chief executive Andrew Witty said. "However, the environment for pharmaceutical and consumer products remains challenging."Like many drug companies, Glaxo has been able to rely on strong growth in emerging markets as developed ones have suffered in recent years, although it did warn today that "Some Emerging Markets are also not immune to government pricing pressure."Lastly, Manoj Ladwa, senior trader at ETX Capital is of the opinion that, "GlaxoSmithkline's third quarter numbers may not be the most exciting, but the pharmaceutical giant continues to go from strength to strength. Despite reporting in-line with analyst expectations, investors will be encouraged by the 6% hike in dividend and shifting the share buy-back programme up a notch."Shares initially fell back on the release of the figures, but subsequently recovered.RG