Fresenius share

In 2021, the Fresenius share price continued to be impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges faced during the year, we propose the 29th consecutive dividend increase.

Stock markets and development ­of the fresenius share

The COVID-19 pandemic continued to negatively impact the global economy in 2021. Although it largely recovered during the year, supply shortages, rising inflation, and the spread of further variants of COVID-19 are affecting short-term growth prospects. Capital markets and global investment levels remained broadly stable, benefiting from government stimulus measures and favorable financing con­ditions. Vaccination progress is expected to reduce the impact of the pandemic, but uncertainties remain regarding the global economic development.

The DAX, Germany’s most important stock market baro­meter, increased by 16%. The Dow Jones STOXX© Europe 600 ended the year with an increase of 22%. In this index, the health care sector (Dow Jones STOXX© Europe 600 Health Care) increased by 23%. The leading U.S. indices performed as follows: the S & P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both increased, by 27% and 20%, respectively.

The closing price for the Fresenius share on December 31, 2021, was € 35.40 and thus 6% below the closing price of 2020. During the course of the year, the lowest price was recorded on December 3 at € 33.45, and the highest on August 18 at € 47.44.
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 € 19.8 billion as of December 31, 2021. The average daily trading volume on Xetra decreased by 33% to 1,405,536 Fresenius shares compared to the previous year (2020: 2,085,926). 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.

Capital structure

The total number of issued shares at the end of 2021 was 558,502,143 (December 31, 2020: 557,540,909 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.

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 2021. 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 30 international investor conferences, 7 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. We continued to communicate with private investors, in particular via the Internet. In addition, we participated in three virtual private shareholder events in 2021.

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 was recognized in the results of the 2021 All-Europe Executive Team Survey, a broad survey conducted by the Institutional Investor magazine, which asked more than 1,500 investors and analysts as well as over 600 financial services companies about 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.

In addition, the Fresenius investor relations team won the special prize for the best digital communication in the DAX at this year’s Investors’ Darling initiative from Manager ­Magazin.

If you would like to contact us or find out about our 2022 financial calendar, please take a look at www.fresenius.com/investors.

Dividend

Despite COVID-19, Fresenius’ business developed well overall in 2021. For the 29th consecutive year, we are proposing to our shareholders to increase the dividend – by 5% per share, to € 0.92 (2020: € 0.88). For the first time, we are offering the possibility of claiming a scrip dividend. The proposed dividend distribution to the shareholders of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA will be € 514 million, equivalent to 28% of Group net income. Based on the proposed dividend and the closing price at the end of 2021, the dividend yield is 2.6%.

Shareholder structure

The Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung was the largest shareholder of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, with 26.6% of the shares. According to notifications pursuant to the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG), BlackRock, Inc. held below 5% of the shares. For further information on notifications, please visit www.fresenius.com/shareholder-structure.

As of December 31, 2021, a shareholder survey identified the ownership of about 96% of our subscribed capital. A total of over 600 institutional investors held about 330 million shares or 61% (2020: 60%) of the subscribed capital; 48.1 million (2020: 46.1 million) shares were identified as retail holdings. Unchanged from the previous year, the 10 largest investors held about 20% 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 10 “buy” and 8 “hold” recommendations.