Demant shares drop after downward revision

The stock market reacted poorly to news that one of the world’s leading hearing aid manufacturers, Demant, has not met its own targets. Demant’s stock fell almost 12 percent on the Copenhagen stock exchange on Wednesday. On Tuesday evening, Demant announced a downward revision of its expected earnings, with operating income now estimated to be between 4.3 and 4.6 billion kroner, down from the previous range of 4.6 to 5 billion kroner. Growth expectations were also reduced from 4-8 percent to 2-4 percent. The U.S. hearing aid business has suffered due to lost market shares in insurance-covered hearing aids. Demant, which operates Oticon and the Audika group’s 3500 hearing aid clinics, also produces diagnostic equipment and Epos-branded headsets. Earlier this year, Demant considered selling its headset division, having ceased production and development of gaming headsets last year to focus on professional headsets.