Hits and Misses: Monday's Earnings Reports
Source: FOXBusiness (Original Article)
Merck & Co.
The drugmaker Merck & Co. (MRK) on Monday reported that its profit almost
doubled in the first quarter due to a $1.4 billion distribution from a
partner drug company. Its sales were slightly higher than a year ago.
The
maker of allergy and asthma pill Singulair reported net income of $3.3
billion, or $1.52 per share, for the January-March period, up from $1.7
billion, or 78 cents a share, a year ago.
Excluding the $1.4
billion gain from AstraZeneca PLC of Britain and other one-time items,
Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck earned 89 cents per share in the
latest quarter.
Revenues totaled $5.82 billion, up 1% from $5.77 billion in the first three months of 2007.
Analysts
surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting earnings of 86 cents per
share, a figure that generally excludes one-time items, but had
forecast higher revenues of $6.11 billion.
Its shares rose 21 cents to $66.72 in premarket trading.
Merck,
which is in the process of settling massive litigation over its
withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, got hit with some new problems during the
quarter.
Its osteoporosis treatment Fosamax, which had been the
leading drug in the category and one of Merck’s top sellers, got new
generic competition. The company also reserved $40 million for legal
defense costs amid about 940 lawsuits alleging the drug damaged jaw
bone in some patients.
In addition, Merck and New Jersey neighbor
Schering-Plough Corp. (SGP), which have a profitable partnership selling
cholesterol drugs, took a black eye when congressional investigators
and some doctors alleged that to protect sales of their blockbuster
drug Vytorin, the companies delayed releasing negative study results
expected to significantly hurt revenues.
“Merck posted solid
first-quarter results despite the loss of patent protection for
Fosamax, as well as a decline in expected sales from St.George Gold Credit Card our
Merck/Schering-Plough joint venture,” Merck’s chairman …continue reading