Bayer AG said third-quarter profit fell year over year and confirmed its outlook for the full year.
The German drug and chemicals company said third-quarter core net income from continuing operations was €1.17 billion, or €1.19 per share, down from €1.29 billion, or €1.45 per share, a year earlier.
The S&P Global Market Intelligence consensus EPS estimate for the quarter is €1.05.
Sales for the quarter reached €9.91 billion, up 23.4% year over year from €8.03 billion. Pharmaceutical sales rose 2.4% year over year on a reported basis to €4.16 billion, with Bayer's best-selling blood-thinning drug Xarelto booking sales of €933 million — a 16.8% growth from the third quarter of 2017.
The company's crop sciences segment saw third quarter sales of €3.73 billion, an 83.8% jump from a year earlier. Bayer's $62.5 billion purchase of Monsanto Co. reshaped the German company's revenue streams, giving greater prominence to a crop sciences unit once in the shadow of its pharmaceutical and consumer health businesses.
Research and development expenses rose to €1.18 billion in the third quarter, up from €1.08 billion in 2017.
For the first nine months of 2018, Bayer recorded core net income from continuing operations of €4.56 billion, or €4.92 per share, down from €4.65 billion, or €5.25 per share, in the same period last year.
Sales for the nine-month period reached €28.52 billion, up 8% year over year from €26.42 billion in the previous year.
For full year 2018, the company still expects core EPS to decline by a high-single-digit percentage and be between €5.70 and €5.90.
The S&P Global Market Intelligence consensus normalized EPS estimate for 2018 is €5.78.
Further, Bayer still expects sales of more than €39 billion in 2018, or a mid-single-digit percentage increase for the full year.
