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Paris - Shares in L'Oreal, the world's leading cosmetics company, fell sharply in midday trading on Wednesday, a day after it released first-half results that disappointed investors.
L'Oreal stock showed a drop of 4.23% to €96.73, while the Paris stock exchange was 0.57% lower overall.
In the first six months of 2012, L'Oreal sales gained 10.5% to €11.2bn ($14.1bn), the group said on Tuesday.
Its operating profit was 11.4% higher at €1.9bn, but analysts at the Bryan Garnier brokerage said: "This result is slightly below expectations" of €1.92bn
The Swiss bank UBS downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "buy," a market source said.
L'Oreal nonetheless confirmed its 2012 target of doing better than the sector as a whole and posting increased sales, earnings and profitability.
Chairman Jean-Paul Agon forecast that the global cosmetics market would grow by 4% despite signs that things were slowing down.
The group said it would buy back up to €500m worth of its own stock and cancel it to bolster the share price.
