bayer ag reported fourthquarter earnings on tuesday here is what we watched sales sales at the german pharmaceuticalandagricultural conglomerate rose to 12 billion euros 1273 billion in the quarter from eur1112 billion the previous year slightly missing a companyprovided consensus that had forecast eur1206 billion net profit net profit fell to eur611 million in the quarter from eur116 billion the year prior and missing a companyprovided consensus that had expected eur981 million crop science the companys agricultural division reported results ahead of consensus and the previous year with sales coming in at eur557 billion from eur469 billion the year prior bayer said that business was up in all regions and that herbicides reported the strongest sales particularly in latin and north america and in europe middle east and africa on the glyphosate litigation side bayer said that the number of lawsuits connected to the allegedly harmful weedkiller roundup rose to 154000 in 2022 from 138000 at the end of 2021 chief executive werner baumann said in a postresults conference call that the company is confident it will have enough provisions on the balance sheet for litigation pharmaceuticals the pharmaceuticals division posted slightly declining sales in the quarter but yearly results were boosted by new products and eye drug eylea bayer said management expects bestselling drugs such as prostatecancer treatment nubeqa kidney drug kerendia and prospective treatments asundexian and elinzanetant to provide a combined peak sales potential of more than eur12 billion annually it said guidance for the year ahead the company expects earnings to be lower due to high inflationdriven cost increases though sales are expected to grow reaching a range of eur51 billion to eur52 billion in the year ebitda before special items is expected to be in the range of eur125 billion to eur13 billion according to citi analyst peter verdult the guidance looks conservative as it reflects the upcoming change in chief executive