Novo Nordisk A/S saw a slight dip in its second-quarter net profit and revised its full-year financial outlook.
The Denmark-based company reported second-quarter net income of 9.95 billion Danish kroner, or 4.01 kroner a share, compared to 9.97 billion kroner, or 3.92 a share, a year earlier.
The S&P Capital IQ consensus normalized EPS estimate for the second quarter is 3.87 kroner.
Novo Nordisk revised its financial outlook for 2017, expecting operating profit growth to be around 4 percentage points lower, compared to its previous expectation of around 1 percentage point higher. Measured in local currencies, full-year operating profit growth is now expected to be between 1% and 5% compared to the previous range of negative 1% to positive 3%.
The company also changed its full-year sales growth outlook to around 3 percentage points lower compared to the previous expectation of around 1 percentage point higher. In local currencies, 2017 sales growth is expected to be between 1% and 3%, compared to the previous range of 0% to 3%.
Second quarter gross profit was up 3% year over year to 24.23 billion kroner from 23.41 billion kroner. Non-IFRS operating profit in local currencies also rose to 13.28 billion kroner from 13.10 billion kroner in 2016.
Net sales for the quarter reached 28.64 billion kroner, up 4% year over year from 27.46 billion kroner. The company's diabetes and obesity care segment booked a 9% year-over-year growth in sales to 23.77 billion kroner.
New-generation insulin sales for the quarter, which include Tresiba, Xultophy and Ryzodeg, were up 154% year over year to 2.49 billion kroner. Diabetes treatment Victoza also booked second-quarter sales of 5.78 billion kroner, up 17% from last year.
Second quarter biopharmaceuticals sales fell to 4.87 billion kroner, down 14% from a year earlier.
Novo Nordisk's research and development costs for the quarter amounted to 3.41 billion kroner, up 2% from last year.
For the first half, the company reported net profit of 20.11 billion kroner, up 4% year over year, with first-half net sales of 57.09 billion kronor, also up 4% year over year.
As of Aug. 8, US$1 was equivalent to 6.34 Danish kroner.