Roche 1st-qtr sales up 3% and beat forecasts

Swiss pharma giant Roche (ROG: SIX) this morning posted first-quarter 2015 sales figures (the company does not report quarterly earnings), showing that revenues increased 3% (+5% at constant exchange rates) to 11.83 billion Swiss francs ($12.4 billion), beating analysts forecast 11.49 billion francs forecast of analysts polled by Reuters poll. Roche's shares gained 2.3% to 280.00 francs in early trading.

Roche said there had been a significant impact of the sharp rise in the Swiss franc against the euro, but this was offset by a rise in the US dollar, noting that the strong franc knocked two percentage points off its sales in the quarter.

Outlook for 2015