Dr Reddys Labs drops 2.5% on Merrill Lynch downgrade report

Dr Reddy's Laboratories fell for the second consecutive session on Friday as the research firm Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock to neutral with a target price of Rs 1,975 after dismal performance in the third quarter.

"A sharp deceleration to 13 percent in the US market sales is likely in FY14," Bank of America Merrill Lynch reasoned.

The company missed street expectations on Thursday as its consolidated net profit declined a higher-than-expected 29 percent year-on-year to Rs 363 crore in the third quarter. Analysts on average had expected the pharma major to report a net profit of Rs 428 crore on revenue of Rs 2,913 crore.

Operating profit margin plunged quite significantly to 15.8 percent from 27.2 percent and analysts expectation of 21 percent.

At 10:18 hours IST, shares slipped 2.4 percent to Rs 1,833 on Bombay Stock Exchange.