Viatris debt load is still a risk factor

Article Excerpt

VIATRIS INC. $12 is a hold. The company (New York symbol VTRS; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $14.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 4.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.viatris.com) was formed in November 2020 by the merger of Pfizer’s Upjohn division (generic drugs) with Netherlands-based Mylan N.V. Pfizer investors received 0.124079 of a Viatris share for each Pfizer share they held. In 2022, Viatris merged its biosimilars drug business with India’s Biocon Biologics. Biosimilars are cheaper copies of complex biologic drugs. Viatris received $2.0 billion in cash plus $1.0 billion of Biocon convertible preferred shares. That helped it buy eye treatment firms Oyster Point Pharma Inc. and Famy Life Sciences for $705.7 million. Viatris’s sales in the three months ended September 30, 2024, fell 5.0%, to $3.74 billion from $3.93 billion a year earlier. On a comparable basis, sales improved 3%. Earnings fell 5.1%, to $0.75 a share (or a total of $897.6 million) from $0.79 a share (or $952.8…