SAN Sanofi

By Cecilia Butini

Sanofi SA reported earnings for the fourth quarter of 2020 on Friday. Here is what we watched.

NET PROFIT: The company swung to a 1.08-billion-euro ($1.29 billion) profit in the fourth quarter from a loss of EUR10 million the previous year, when it booked impairment charges. The result beat a consensus provided by FactSet, which had net profit at EUR741.9 million for the period.

SALES: Sales declined slightly in the fourth quarter to EUR9.38 billion, from EUR9.61 billion the previous year, falling slightly short of a consensus provided by FactSet which had sales at EUR9.54 billion.

WHAT WE WATCHED:

-TARGETS: Besides providing an outlook for high-single-digit growth in business earnings per share for 2021, Sanofi confirmed its target to expand its business operating income margin to 30% by 2022, and said the company is nearing this goal as planned. It also increased a previously set cost-saving target of EUR2 billion by 2022, which is now set at EUR2.5 billion. While this didn't come as a surprise, it is still good news, analysts at Bryan Garnier said.

-DUPIXENT: The drug posted 54% sales growth in the quarter. Dupixent is on a path to achieve more than EUR10 billion in peak sales for type-2 inflammatory diseases, Sanofi said, and should become accretive to business operating income margin in 2022.

-SALES: Strong sales of pharmaceuticals, driven by Dupixent, offset lower sales in the general medicines business, while vaccine sales increased in the quarter, mainly due to influenza shots. Delays in meningitis vaccinations caused by the pandemic at the beginning of 2020 were compensated in the fourth quarter, when sales of these jabs caught up again. Momentum for these vaccines is expected to continue in 2021, said Thomas Triomphe, president of Sanofi's vaccines division, during a post-results call. Flu shots are set to remain the division's main growth driver, Mr. Triomphe said.

Write to Cecilia Butini at cecilia.butini@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 05, 2021 09:23 ET (14:23 GMT)

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