Omnicare Turns To Profit In Q3; Lifts Adj. EPS View

(RTTNews) - Omnicare Inc. (OCR) reported that its net income for its third quarter ended September 30, 2014 was $64.83 million or $0.61 per share, compared to a net loss of $66.31 million or $0.65 per share in the year ago quarter.

Adjusted cash earnings per share from continuing operations for the quarter rose to $0.94 from $0.88 in the previous year.

Net sales for the quarter were $1.608 billion up from $1.515 billion in the prior year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.92 per share and revenues of $1.60 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

"For the third quarter, we reported solid year-over-year revenue growth of 6.1%, with each of our core businesses contributing to the increase. Our operating performance was also bolstered by another solid performance within our Specialty Care Group, which generated a 27.4% increase in operating profit. Additionally, we continued to realize the benefit of our ongoing efficiency initiatives across our business, with operating efficiencies contributing to a 23 basis-point sequential expansion in adjusted operating margin to 9.5%." said Nitin Sahney, Omnicare's Chief Executive Officer.

For fiscal 2014, the company now projects adjusted cash earnings per share, excluding special items, to be in the range of $3.70 - $3.72, compared to prior estimate of $3.64 - $3.72. The company still expects revenue to be between $6.3 billion and $6.4 billion for fiscal 2014.

Wall Street currently is looking for fiscal year 2014 earnings of $3.69 per share on annual revenues of $6.39 billion.