Bayer's profit guidance falls short of expectations

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig ‌Burger

FRANKFURT, March 4 (Reuters) - ​Germany's ​Bayer issued a 2026 earnings target range below market expectations on Wednesday, as the drugmaker's CEO struggles to revive a stock battered by costly ‌litigation and massive financial debt.

Based on foreign exchange rates at the end ⁠of 2025, the company projected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before special items of 9.1 billion ‌euros ($10.57 billion) to 9.6 billion ‌euros.

The upper end was slightly below market expectations of 9.67 billion euros, based on an analyst consensus posted on the group's website.

That compares with a figure of ​9.67 billion Bayer reported for 2025, which was slightly above the market view.

The shares were down 3.8% at a two-month low at 0905 GMT. Barclays analysts said, ⁠at mid-point, the guidance was 3.3% below the 2026 consensus.

CEO Bill Anderson has been overhauling Bayer's management structure but ​he has suspended a strategic review that could have led to a breakup of the diversified group.

Bayer last month struck an agreement ​worth as much as $7.25 billion to resolve tens ‌of thousands of product liability claims after years of grappling with litigation over weed killer Roundup from its 2018 takeover of Monsanto.

Under the ⁠CEO's push to reduce layers of hierarchy and speed up decision-making, Bayer said it cut annual costs by 700 million euros last year and planned to bring that figure to 2 ⁠billion euros by the end of 2026.

Bayer last year said about 65,000 contested claims by Roundup users ​blaming their cancer on the herbicide were pending, but it declined to provide an updated figure on Wednesday, citing the confidentiality of ongoing settlement talks.

Bayer's stock has been on a rollercoaster ride.

Hit ‌last month by investor scepticism over the settlement, it had previously seen a boost from a successful drug trial and from the ‌U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear Bayer's bid to sharply limit Roundup lawsuits.

The company projected ⁠a 2026 free cash outflow of ‌between 1.5 and 2.5 billion ​euros, driven by about 5 billion euros in litigation payouts.

($1 = 0.8612 euros)

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Patricia Weiss, editing by Kirsti Knolle and ‌Tomasz Janowski)

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