Schott Pharma Shares Plunge from Record Low to Record Low Following Downgrades
FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) – Monday proved bleak for investors in the pharmaceutical packaging sector, with Schott Pharma stocks leading the downturn. Since early November, Schott Pharma shares have repeatedly hit new record lows, and their downward spiral has only accelerated.
Late Thursday, the pharmaceutical supplier unsettled shareholders with weak business targets, triggering a significant drop in the stock price the following day. This decline continued unabated at the start of the week, with shares plummeting another 6.2 percent to EUR15.94. The latest slide was fueled by two analyst downgrades from Deutsche Bank and Barclays.
The weakness in Schott Pharma also weighed on competitor Gerresheimer on Monday. Gerresheimer shareholders have endured a prolonged slump for more than two years, one that even sporadic takeover speculation has failed to reverse. Shares of the Schott rival fell 2.2 percent to EUR25.30, edging closer to their lowest level since 2010, which was marked at EUR23 in November. However, Gerresheimer’s stock market history is considerably longer than Schott’s, which only began two years ago.
Last week, Schott disappointed investors with an outlook clouded by prevailing market uncertainty. UBS analyst Olivier Calvet had already noted before the weekend that weak demand in the syringe business was a new challenge. At the start of the week, two more analysts abandoned their previously positive assessments of Schott, both expressing concern over the situation in the glass syringe segment.
Falko Friedrichs of Deutsche Bank Research cited the company’s sharply lowered medium-term targets as the reason for withdrawing his buy recommendation. However, he noted an even greater disappointment in the outlook for the current fiscal year, which not only signals significant downward revisions to market expectations but also points to another transitional year. This was explicitly acknowledged by CEO Andreas Reisse on Thursday evening, when he stated that the company would face a challenging market environment in 2026.
This transitional year was also highlighted by Pallav Mittal of Barclays, who likewise downgraded Schott shares from “Overweight” to a neutral rating. Both analysts also sharply reduced their price targets for Schott: Barclays to EUR15 and Deutsche Bank to EUR19. Mittal, in particular, sees further risk for Schott shares, which have already lost nearly 37 percent of their value in 2025. Since the record high in February 2024, the stock has plunged by more than 63 percent./tih/mis/men
