Hospira Beats Q1 Expectations

reported upbeat results for the first quarter on Tuesday. The Lake Forest, Illinois-based company reported a quarterly profit of $75.6 million, or $0.43 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $67.9 million, or $0.40 per share. Excluding items, the company's earnings rose to $0.97 per share from $0.60 per share. Its sales gained 11.8 percent to $1.17 billion, while sales, excluding currency impacts, surged 15.7 percent. Analysts were expecting a profit of $0.53 per share on revenue of $1.08 billion. World-wide, specialty injectable sales climbed 12.9 percent, while sales in the company's medication management unit dropped 1.2 percent. Other pharma sales climbed 26.7 percent during the quarter. Adjusted income from operations jumped 63.2 percent year-over-year to $247 million in the first quarter. Selling, general and administration rose 20.2 percent to $224 million. The average estimate among 4 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.55 per share and revenue of $1.09 billion. "Hospira started out the year with very strong sales and profitability, driven primarily by continued momentum in our Specialty Injectable Pharmaceuticals business," said F. Michael Ball, chief executive officer. "In addition to our strong financial performance, we made significant progress on many fronts, including enhancing our biosimilars pipeline, launching new generic injectable products and advancing our device strategy. Going forward, we remain keenly focused on our key growth areas of biosimilars, generic injectables and devices, as well as on meeting the needs of our customers and healthcare systems around the world." Hospira shares closed at $87.24 yesterday.