Koninklijke Philips (PHG) won a legal round over its sleep-apnea recall on Saturday, October 10, when a Dutch court had rejected shareholders’ request for an inquiry into how the company handled it.
The ruling lands on a stock that has been sliding. Philips ADRs last closed at $24.24, down about 10.5% this year.
What the court decided
- The Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal turned down a large group of shareholders who alleged misleading disclosures and slow action by management
- It found no sign Philips knew of the foam problems long before it warned the public
- It saw no reason Philips’ leadership should have intervened earlier at Respironics.
- Philips denied the claims and welcomed the decision (the ruling covers only this inquiry; French prosecutors are still investigating)
What the recall cost Philips
The 2021 recall covered about 15 million devices. Philips then lost money three years running, with combined net losses of $2.96 billion across 2022, 2023 and 2024. Along the way, it agreed in 2024 to pay $1.1 billion to resolve US personal-injury and medical-monitoring litigation related to the recalled devices.
It returned to a $1.05 billion profit in 2025, still about 28% below the $1.45 billion it earned in 2020, the year before the recall. The earnings are recovering. They’re not back.
The Bottom Line on Philips Stock
This ruling settles a governance question, not a financial one. No money changes hands, and the bigger constraint is untouched: under its 2024 US consent decree, Respironics can’t sell new CPAP or BiPAP machines in the US until it meets the decree’s requirements, according to Philips’ May investor FAQ. That leaves the US sleep market open to ResMed (RMD).
For Philips shareholders, the date that matters is the day the FDA lets Respironics sell new machines in the US again. Philips hasn’t given one.
Curious how far Philips’ earnings have recovered since the recall? Pull up the same net income history on TIKR for free, and set it next to ResMed’s to see who gained while Philips was out of the US market. Learn more here.
So what is Koninklijke Philips stock actually worth?
TIKR lets you forecast the future price of any stock in less than a minute. Just enter a few assumptions into TIKR’s valuation model and see what PHG stock could be worth. Start from Wall Street consensus estimates, or adjust the inputs to reflect your own view of the business. It’s free to use.
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