Upbeat 3rd-qtr for Sanofi pushes shares higher

French pharma major Sanofi’s (Euronext: SAN) shares were up 7.7% before market opening, after it lifted its profit guidance for the full-year 2016 and detailing news of a big share buyback. The stock was still up 3.6% at 71.33 euros by market close on Monday.

Specifically, it said it planned to complete a 3.5 billion-euro ($3.82 billion) share buyback by the end of 2017. Sanofi also plans to divest European Union generics business, which generates about 800 million euros in annual sales, within 12-24 months

Sanofi reported a 9.7% rise in business net income to 2.3 billion euros in the third quarter, up from 2.1 billion euros a year earlier, which beat the 2 billion-euro average of 10 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Business earnings per share (EPS) were up 11.2% at 1.79 euros. Sales rose 2.1% to 9.65 billion euros, in line with analysts’ estimates.