By Jess Jones
Dutch health technology giant Philips raised its full-year outlook on Monday even as its order book declined.
Shares in the Amsterdam-based company fell by as much as four per cent and stayed in the red on Monday morning after it said the number of orders dropped nine per cent compared with the same period last year.
But it upped its full-year 2023 outlook with sales growth of up to six to seven per cent, with an earnings before tax margin of 10-11 per cent.
Sales for the third quarter rose 11 per cent on the same quarter in 2022 to €4.5bn (£3.9bn), while core profit over doubled to €457m (£399m) in the third quarter.
Philips said this was thanks to “increased sales, pricing and productivity measures”.
“We are taking the necessary actions to improve order intake by shortening lead times from order to delivery and building on the positive impact we are making with our innovations,” said Roy Jakobs, chief executive of Philips.
“For example, in predictive data analytics and artificial intelligence across our portfolio, to help improve the quality and efficiency of care delivery.”
Philips is still trying to fix its Respironics sleeping devices after recalling faulty models in 2021 over toxicity concerns, knocking about 70 per cent off the company’s market value.
