Philips’ investors can ill-afford another jolt to their nerves - FT中文网
登录×
电子邮件/用户名
密码
记住我
请输入邮箱和密码进行绑定操作:
请输入手机号码,通过短信验证(目前仅支持中国大陆地区的手机号):
请您阅读我们的用户注册协议隐私权保护政策,点击下方按钮即视为您接受。
飞利浦

Philips’ investors can ill-afford another jolt to their nerves

Investors in the Dutch healthcare conglomerate had until this week been enjoying a restorative patch

Some companies, it seems, receive the benefit of the doubt even if their performance is a little ho-hum. They can, for example, highlight weak Chinese demand and get away with a mere share price ripple. Other stocks take a razor-sharp cut on every lump and bump. 

Philips is a case in point. Investors in the Dutch healthcare conglomerate, which makes everything from diagnostic machines to electric shavers, had until this week been enjoying a restorative patch. Legal woes over malfunctioning sleep apnoea machines had been resolved faster and more cheaply than feared, and sales seemed to be heading in the right direction.

But a stumble has undone much of the progress. Philips’ stock has fallen 15 per cent since it released soft third-quarter results on Monday. While Italy’s Agnelli family — who made a big investment in the stock in August 2023 through their public vehicle Exor — is still in the money, this week marks a blow for those who had more recently got behind Philips’ turnaround story.

Investors must be wondering what exactly hit them. The issues Philips highlighted at third-quarter results are hardly unheard of. An anti-corruption drive at Chinese hospitals is slowing procurement of diagnostics machines — a headwind that drove guidance downgrades at rivals Siemens Healthineers and GE Healthcare after second-quarter results, points out Lisa Clive at Bernstein. And while a double-digit fall in personal care sales in China is surprising in its magnitude, the weakness of Chinese consumer demand has been widely flagged across industries.

Meanwhile, results outside China are strong. Operating margins remain healthy despite slower than expected sales. Philips does not look expensive, either. It trades on 15 times next year’s — reduced — earnings expectations despite double-digit EPS growth through to 2026, on Barclays estimates. Siemens Healthineers trades on more than 19 times.

The best explanation for the share price reaction is that Philips is suffering from sticky negative sentiment, a malady that can afflict companies that have severely spooked the market in recent history.

Curing it requires not just solving one problem, no matter how major. It requires solving all of them. That’s something that GSK, reporting on Wednesday, will be acutely aware of. Following the resolution of the Zantac heartburn medicine legal overhang, analysts are now fretting over the strength of its vaccine sales.

Traumatised investors require a long period of peace and quiet to recover their composure. Philips cannot afford another jolt to their nerves.

camilla.palladino@ft.com

版权声明:本文版权归FT中文网所有,未经允许任何单位或个人不得转载,复制或以任何其他方式使用本文全部或部分,侵权必究。

Lex专栏:乌克兰重建为欧洲企业打开机遇之窗

财报电话会透露,已有数十家公司开始关注这一机遇。

Lex专栏:私募基金找到应对“截止日期危机”的新途径

2021年兴起且通常生命周期为3到5年的接续基金自身正接近截止日期。收购公司不得不再次展现创造力。

微软谈判恐将把OpenAI重组推迟至明年

这家软件巨头希望保留对这家初创公司技术的使用权,同时删除“通用人工智能(AGI)条款”

人工智能如何重塑艰难的药物发现流程

研究机构寄望于科技来提升获批几率。
1天前

特朗普惩罚性关税迫近,印度立场坚定

在与华盛顿就俄罗斯石油采购陷入僵局之际,新德里向莫斯科抛出橄榄枝。

Lex专栏:预测市场——美国的新一轮豪赌

从体育比赛到诺贝尔和平奖,用户如今都能下注押宝其结果。
设置字号×
最小
较小
默认
较大
最大
分享×