By Andrey Sychev
(Reuters) -Frankfurt-listed shares in Sartorius plunged to their lowest intraday level in more than a year and a half on Thursday after first-quarter sales at the lab supplies maker missed expectations and a key unit reported low orders.
Shares in the Franco-German company fell as much as 11% on the DAX blue-chip index, their lowest intraday since September 2021, while the firm's Paris-listed stock was down 7% at 0746 GMT.
Sartorius' first-quarter revenue declined 13.2% year-on-year to 903 million euros ($989.15 million), as pandemic-related demand for lab equipment faded.
Analysts had expected sales to drop 2% annually to 1 billion euros in the first quarter, according to the Refinitiv mean estimate.
During the pandemic, biotech and pharmaceutical firms benefited from surging demand for lab equipment, including COVID-19 testing tools. Pharmaceutical companies have this year warned of a plunge in pandemic-related product sales.
The German biotech firm confirmed its 2023 targets.
"Demand for biopharmaceuticals is growing steadily, and we see new, innovative therapies making inroads," said Sartorius Chief Executive Joachim Kreuzburg.
However, JPM analysts expect the significant sales miss and low order intake in the firm's key Bioprocess Solutions division to lead to continued uncertainty over second-half growth.
Order intake in Bioprocess Solutions, which brought in most of the firm's revenue in 2022, plunged by more than a third in constant currencies in January-March compared with the same period last year.
($1 = 0.9129 euros)