FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Schott Pharma shares came under heavy pressure on Wednesday following subdued expectations for the coming financial year. In last place in the slightly higher second-line index SDax, they recently fell by 14.6 percent to 31.86 euros. At 31.50 euros in the morning, they were at their lowest level since mid-January.

The evening before, the pharmaceutical supplier had warned of weak sales of syringes to a major customer in the coming year. The predictability of further developments is now very poor, criticized a Borsianer. Barclays analyst Gaurav Jain cut his estimates for organic growth in 2025 from 18% to 10%.

The shares, which were launched on the stock exchange at the end of September last year at EUR 27, actually performed quite well in the months up to the end of February, with prices of over EUR 43 in some cases. Then the air ran out a little. With the slide this Wednesday, the shares have now fallen back to the price level of January.

Analyst Ed Hall from the investment firm Stifel drew parallels with the Italian company Stevanato and its recent forecast cut due to a single customer. These were individual events that did not affect other companies. Nevertheless, they show the dependence of the specialty packaging sector on the pharmaceutical end markets. For him, Gerresheimer is the favorite in the sector because Gerresheimer's valuation is significantly lower than that of its competitors, but its sales growth is now in line with that of its competitors and its sales streams extend across a broad-based portfolio.

In his opening study on Schott the day before, UBS expert Olivier Calvet had also put the brakes on fantasies regarding the boom topic of weight loss pills from the GLP-1 drug class. Here he sees more earnings potential in the direct competition.

Gerresheimer shares fell moderately on Wednesday to around 100 euros. They have gained almost six percent since the beginning of the year. However, they are still a long way from the record high of almost EUR 123 reached in September 2023./ajx/ag/stk