Roche posts solid sales performance for first nine months of 2014

Swiss pharma major Roche (ROG: SIX) this morning released its financials for the first nine months of 2014, showing that group sales were 34.8 billion Swiss francs ($36.98 billion), 5% higher at constant exchange rates and stable in Swiss francs.

In the third quarter alone, sales rose 5% to 11.78 billion francs ($12.5 billion), slightly ahead of the average forecast of 11.57 billion francs in a Reuters poll.

A number of currencies remained weaker against the Swiss franc throughout the year, most notably the US dollar, as well as all Latin American currencies and the Japanese yen, the company noted. Roche does not reveal profit figures at the quarterly stage. Roche shares edged 1.27% higher to 262.20 francs in early trading.