Covance Q3 Profit Increases - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Covance Inc. (CVD) reported that its third-quarter net income increased to $66.00 million from $44.20 million in the prior year quarter. Earnings per share were $1.16 up from $0.78 last year.

Pro forma earnings per share were $0.98, up 18.2% over the third quarter of 2013. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.98 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net revenues for the quarter grew to $627.08 million from $606.72 million in the previous year. Wall Street expected revenues of $650.98 million for the quarter.

The company expects fourth quarter revenue to be in the range of $625 million to $635 million and earnings per share to be in the range of $0.95 to $0.98. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $1.02 per share and revenues of $662.98 million for the fourth-quarter.

The company projects 2014 earnings per share to be in the range of $3.78 to $3.81, excluding gains on sale, costs associated with its restructuring activities, and asset impairment charges. Analysts expect annual earnings of $3.86 per share. The company said in July that it expected adjusted earnings per share to be $3.78 to $3.92 for fiscal 2014.

Separately, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LH) and Covance announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which LabCorp will acquire Covance for cash and LabCorp shares currently valued at $105.12 per Covance share, or an equity value of approximately $6.1 billion and an enterprise value of approximately $5.6 billion.