Fresenius share

In 2020, the Fresenius share price was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges faced during the year, we propose the 28th consecutive dividend increase.

Stock markets and development ­of the Fresenius share

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly shaped the global economy in 2020 and led to a sharp decline in economic activity. Despite much uncertainty about the further development of the COVID-19 pandemic, the capital markets recovered significantly from the lows in the first quarter, due to economic stimulus measures taken by governments. Economic activity and employment have picked up in recent months, but remained well below their levels from the beginning of the year.

The DAX, Germany’s most important stock market barometer, increased by 4%. The Dow Jones STOXX© Europe 600 ended the year with a loss of 4%. In this index, the health care sector (Dow Jones STOXX© Europe 600 Health Care) fell by 3%. The leading U.S. indices performed as follows: the S & P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both increased, by 16% and 6%, respectively.

The closing price for the Fresenius share on December 31, 2020, was € 37.84 and thus 25% below the closing price of 2019. During the course of the year, the lowest price was recorded on March 19 at € 25.66, and the highest on January 9 at € 50.32. At www.fresenius.com/share-price-center you can find an interactive chart tool for graphical display and further analysis of the shares. You can also find out how the Fresenius share has performed compared to the shares of competitors.

The market capitalization of Fresenius was € 21 billion as of December 31, 2020. The average daily trading volume on Xetra increased by 23% to 2,085,926 Fresenius shares compared to the previous year (2019: 1,693,849).

In the United States, Fresenius has a Sponsored Level I American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program. In this program, four Fresenius ADRs correspond to one Fresenius share. The ADRs were traded in the OTCQX International Premier market segment until December 31, 2020.

Capital structure

The total number of issued shares at the end of 2020 was 557,540,909 (December 31, 2019: 557,379,979 shares). The increase is due to the exercise of options in accordance with stock option plans. Information on stock option plans can be found in the Notes.

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Key data of the Fresenius share
2020 2019 2018 2017 2016
Number of shares 557,540,909 557,379,979 556,225,154 554,710,473 547,208,371
Stock exchange quotation1 in €
High 50.32 52.42 70.94 79.65 74.26
Low 25.66 40.74 38.99 60.58 53.05
Year-end quotation 37.84 50.18 42.38 65.07 74.26
Market capitalization2 in million € 21,097 27,969 23,573 36,095 40,636
Total dividend distribution in million € 490.63 468.0 445.0 416.0 343.1
Dividend per share in € 0.883 0.84 0.80 0.75 0.62
Earnings per share in €4 3.22 3.37 3.37 3.28 2.85
1 Xetra closing price on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
2 Total number of ordinary shares multiplied by the respective Xetra year-end quotation on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange 
3 Proposal
4 Net income attributable to shareholders of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA; before special items

Investor Relations

Our investor relations are in accordance with the trans­parency rules of the German Corporate Governance Code. We communicate comprehensively, promptly, and openly with private and institutional investors, as well as financial analysts. The equal treatment of all market actors is very important to us.

We also maintained our intense dialog with the capital markets in 2020. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the worldwide travel restrictions, Fresenius has presented itself in major financial markets exclusively virtually, via telephone and video conferences.

We continued our contacts with institutional investors and analysts at 26 international investor conferences, 12 roadshows, and in numerous one-on-one meetings. We also organized CEO calls and virtual field trips with banks, giving investors and analysts the opportunity to discuss matters with the Management Board.

Due to COVID-19, we did not participate in private shareholder events in 2020. At www.fresenius.com/events-and-presentations our private shareholders can follow live webcasts of the conference calls and can make use of the continuously increasing range of information offered on our website and social media channels on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The Fresenius investor relations team and the management team were recognized in the results of the 2020 All-Europe Executive Team Survey, a broad survey conducted by the company Institutional Investor, which annually surveys some 15,000 investors and analysts on various aspects of good investor relations. On this occasion, the Fresenius investor relations team was honored, once again, as the best in the MedTech & Services sector in Europe.

If you would like to contact us or find out about our 2021 financial calendar, please take a look at www.fresenius.com/investors.

Dividend

Despite COVID-19, Fresenius’ business development in 2020 was robust. For the 28th consecutive year, we are proposing to our shareholders to increase the dividend – by 5% per share, to € 0.88 (2019: € 0.84). The proposed dividend distribution to the shareholders of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA will be € 491 million, equivalent to 27% of Group net income. Based on the proposed dividend and the closing price at the end of 2020, the dividend yield is 2.3%.

1 Proposal

Shareholder structure

The charts opposite show the shareholder structure at the end of 2020. The Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung was the largest shareholder of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, with 26.7% of the shares. According to notifications pursuant to the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG), Allianz Global Investors GmbH and BlackRock, Inc. each held below 5% of the shares. For further information on notifications, please visit www.fresenius.com/shareholder-structure.

As of December 31, 2020, a shareholder survey identified the ownership of about 95% of our subscribed capital. The shareholder base of Fresenius is solid: a total of over 600 institutional investors held about 330 million shares or 60% (2019: 62%) of the subscribed capital; 46.1 million (2019: 29.9 million) shares were identified as retail holdings. The 10 largest investors held about 20% (2019: 23%) of the share capital. Our shares were mostly held by investors in Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Analyst recommendations

The recommendations published by financial analysts are an important guide for institutional and private investors when making investment decisions. According to our survey, as of February 18, 2021, we were rated with 14 “buy”, 4 “hold”, and 1 “sell” recommendations.

The list of banks that provide regular analyst coverage of Fresenius and their latest recommendations can be found at www.fresenius.com/analysts-and-consensus.

Fresenius Vamed

Corporate Governance