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Highlights:
- On year-to-date basis, CSL share price has declined nearly 3%.
- The sales of plasma therapies are impacted by the plasma collection.
- Considering the long-term nature of manufacturing cycle, plasma collection in one year, impacts the sales in next year.
- In FY22, plasma collection has shown significant improvement.
One of Australia’s most sought after healthcare firms, CSL Limited (ASX:CSL) keeps buzzing in news for different reasons. However, the shares of this biotech company did not have a good start in 2022. Also, the ASX 200 Health Care index was not able to register a good start.
On 4 January 2022, the shares were quoted at AU$295.99 per share, and by 14 February 2022, the share price dropped to AU$243.00 per share. During this time period, no big announcement was made by the company. It is likely that the benchmark index performance drove the share performance.
CSL's share price showed improvement when it entered the financial year 2023, that is, after 30 June 2022.
What to expect from CSL in the financial year 2023?
While sharing the full-year results for FY22, the company shared that it expects its net profit after tax would return to growth in FY23. The anticipated range of NPAT is circa AU$2.4 to AU$2.5 billion at constant currency.
Paul Perreault, CEO and managing director, CSL, highlighted that the company had witnessed continuous improvement in its core immunoglobulin (Ig) franchise. In FY22, plasma collection grew substantially, although at a higher cost. The collection increased by 24%, and this growth is expected to boost the sales growth in core plasma products, namely, albumin and Ig.
The previous year (FY21), Covid-19 driven pandemic had impacted plasma collection, and it impacted the sale of plasma therapies in FY22, indicating the long-term nature of the manufacturing cycle.
Perreault mentioned that higher cost of plasma is anticipated to prevail in coming financial year.
CSL’s CEO added that the company expects that CSL Seqirus, influenza business would deliver solid performance, driven by demand for its differentiated products.
What has happened in CSL recently?
On 14 September 2022, CSL shared that Bernadette Murdoch would join CSL to lead Reputation Management Center of Excellence, within the Corporate Affair and Communication function. She will take up the role in November 2022 and will be based in Parkville. Her responsibilities would include coordinating media relations in Australia.
Murdoch is an experienced global corporate and communication leader. Since 2017, she was associated with Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO). She served in range of leadership role for eleven years at GSK. Earlier, she had worked with several communication agencies as well.
How are CSL shares performing today?
The biotechnology company opened in red today (16 September 2022). At 10:32 AM AEST, CSL shares were spotted trading 0.20% lower from its previous close at AU$287.13 per share. With this, in last five trading sessions, the share price has dropped 4.09%. in the last six months, shares have recorded a surge of nearly 7%, however, on a year-to-date basis, it has dropped 3.07%.
Meanwhile, the health care index (INDEXASX:XHJ) was down 0.46% to 41,556.70 points at 10:54 AM AEST.
