Shares in Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:VRX) rose more than 25% today after the company met earnings expectations on Wall Street, but missed on revenue with its 1st quarter results.
The Canada-based company posted profits of $628 million, or $1.79 per share, on sales of $2.11 billion for the 3 months ended March 31, for bottom-line growth of 267% on sales loss of -11% compared with the same period last year.
The profit was the company’s 1st in 6 quarters and it was due to a 1-time income tax benefit of $908 million associated with an internal restructuring.
Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, earnings per share were $1.79, ahead of consensus on The Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $2.18 billion.
“Our 1st quarter performance demonstrates that we are delivering on our commitments. We met our internal expectations, and we are continuing to make progress on our key initiatives, focus on the turnaround of our core businesses and improve internal operating efficiencies,” chairman & CEO Joseph Papa said in prepared remarks. “Our divestiture efforts and cash flow generation have led to a $3.6 billion reduction in total debt to date, since the end of the first quarter of 2016, and our successful debt refinancing provides us with a more comfortable maturity profile.”
Valeant updated its full-year adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization to $3.60-$3.75 billion, up from its previous forecast of $3.55-$3.70 billion.
VRX shares were trading at $12.04 apiece today in mid-afternoon trading, up 24%.
The company is still trying to shed some of the crippling debt it took on through its acquisitions – nearly $29 billion, according to Wells Fargo’s David Maris.
Material from Reuters was used in this report.
