Glaxo Slips After Disappointing Earnings, Diabetes Drug Sales

[Stocks-to-Watch]

Shares of U.K. pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) took a bit of a spill this morning after the company posted fourth-quarter earnings and sales that missed analysts’ estimates and announced a smaller share repurchase plan than last year.

The U.S.-listed American depositary receipts fell 0.87% or 39 cents per share to $44.69 in late morning action.

Glaxo reports financial results in British pounds. It earned 1.25 billion pounds ($1.98 billion), or 28.4 pence per share during the quarter that ended on Dec. 31, falling short of the 30 pence per share expected by analysts. Revenue fell 3% to 6.98 billion pounds ($11 billion) thanks to a decline in sales of flu-related products, as well as weak sales of the diabetes drug Avandia and the antiviral Valtrex.

The drugmaker said it expects to buy back between 1 billion and 2 billion pounds in stock in 2012. Last year, share repurchases totaled 2.2 billion pounds.



Original Article Source by Barrons.com