Roche 2015 core net income lags estimates

BASEL: Swiss drugmaker Roche on Thursday missed analyst expectations by posting 2015 core net income of 11.84 billion Swiss francs ($11.64 billion).

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected full-year net income of 12.2 billion Swiss francs, down about 1 percent from 2014 when the world's biggest maker of cancer drugs booked gains from a disposal.

Roche forecast 2016 sales would rise at a low- to mid-single-digit rate at constant exchange rates. It said core earnings per share are targeted to grow ahead of sales at constant exchange rates this year.

Roche proposed increasing its dividend to 8.10 francs per share from 8.00, less than the 8.29 francs analysts had expected on average.

Sales rose 1 percent to 48.145 billion francs in 2015, compared to analyst forecasts of 48.4 billion francs. In constant currencies, sales rose 5 percent.