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The Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg data.
Look at some individual stocks on the move today. Here in I'm Caroline Hepka and I'm joined by Bloomberg reporter Chloe Malay. As usual, Good morning, Chloe. Let's begin with Burbury putting in a really strong showing today. Is their growth here to stay? Is that a question for business or is it about whether you're fashion East?
And maybe I don't know, Yeah, I know, I don't own any any Babary, but it seems that they are doing pretty well. So they were done to a retail sales growth for the first time in two years, and that was thanks to really strong them on in particular in the region that includes China, which is something that echoes what other luxury names have been saying this season. So we remember LVMH last month and mentioning that rebound
in that Chinese market as well. Forbury, this also confirms that the turnaround under the new CEO is working, so he's refocused on the Burbary classics of trench coats and scarfs leaving behind a previous push into handbags that really failed, and that seems to be paying off, kind of going back to its roots. And he's also made some big cost cuts, so earlier this year the company announced plans to get rid of about a fifth of its workforce.
So all of that this kind of refocus on the British roots of Burbery, and then also this cost cuts seemed to be working quite well and paying off, and als have said that all the boxes were ticked, that the execution was on track. The strategic plan is looking quite robust, and the potential rewards will still outweigh the risks for Burbary. So overall, a pretty good print from Berbery this morning. We saw that reflected in the shares rising, although they've had some of those games now I think.
Yeah, absolutely, up as much as five percent this morning for Burbery. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical company Merk is yeah, driving some conversations why so Yeah.
The German science Conlomber reported better than expected a profit this morning, so that was thanks to strong sales of its new tumor drugs, but then also really strong performance in some parts of its life science unit, which is
the biggest division. For Merk, So the parts that did particularly well are the ones that provide the equipment to manufacture drugs, and that is a part of that business that I had seen a little bit of a slow down post pandemic because of de stocking, but now it's reaccelerating again and the company is trying to revive growth across all of its divisions, so that includes healthcare, life sciences, and electronics as well, and doing that through acquisitions and
through a lot of cost control as well. So for example, in terms of acquisitions, it recently bought the rare disease specialist spring Works and that helped contribute to sales for
this quarter, so that was a boost there. For the electronics division, they said that the demand that was related to AI AI related semiconductor materials was still quite strong, but that there was a delay in some big projects and that was continuing to hurt the growth, which is what echoes what we've seen from other companies within that semiconductor sector more broadly and providers of equipment to that semiconductor sector.
So that on Merk meanwhile, we are seeing a dop for semens. What are the main challenges that they've been talking about.
Yeah, so a lot to digest from Semens this morning, so yeah, it actually sets some near end medium term targets.
It also announced a kind of a broader revamp that includes trimming its steak in Semens Health and Airs, which is the medical equipment unit that was spun off in twenty eighteen, and the goal of that is free up capital and invest more in AI and software, and so analysts have said that that deconsolidation makes a lot of sense, that it's a logical step to simplify the group, given that there's very little synergy between Health and Ears, which
makes MRI scanners, and then Semens, which makes you know, software for factory, so you know, those two very different things, so simplifying it makes sense. But overall, the results and the outlook disappointed a little bit, and we had JP Morgan analysts calling the results quite mixed, saying that there's pressure on margin, there's currency headwinds really hurting the business as well, and that the medium term guidance is actually quite opaque, that drag from the currency headwinds is really
the focus here, it seems. The company said that it expects those currency fluctuations to strongly burden profit and sales growth in twenty twenty six, so that clouds the outlook a little and we saw that reflected in shares a little bit weaker this morning as a result.
The Stock Movers report from Bloomberg Radio. Check back with us throughout the day for the latest roundup of companies making news on Wall Street and for the latest market moving headlines. Listen to Bloomberg Radio Live, catch us on YouTube, Bloomberg dot com, and on Applecarplay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.