AmerisourceBergen Sees Lower Q1 EPS, Cuts FY17 View; To Buy Back $1 Bln Shares

(RTTNews) - AmerisourceBergen Corp. (ABC), a pharmaceutical sourcing and distribution services company, on Wednesday said it expects first-quarter adjusted earnings per share to be several cents lower than the prior year's result, and flat in the March quarter compared to the previous year.

For the full year 2017, the company said it has slightly reduced both revenue growth rate and adjusted earnings per share growth rate expectations, due to the uncertainty around drug pricing trends in particular,

The company now expects adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $5.63 to $5.88, and revenue growth in the range of 6.5 percent to 8 percent.

On average, 19 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect earnings of $5.82 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Previously, the company projected adjusted earnings per share in fiscal year 2017 to grow in the range of 4 percent to 6 percent above the midpoint of its updated fiscal 2016 guidance range of $5.52 to $5.57.

The company earlier anticipated revenue growth slightly better than the overall market for fiscal year 2017

The company noted that performance will be stronger in the second half of the year than in the first half.

Further, the company announced that its Board of Directors authorized a new $1 billion regular share repurchase program. This, together with available capacity under the existing regular share repurchase program, permits the Company to purchase up to $1.1 billion in shares of its common stock, subject to market conditions.