Valeant Posts Upbeat Q1 Results, Lifts Full-Year Forecast

reported upbeat results for the first quarter and raised its forecast for the year. For 2015, Valeant now expects earnings of $10.90 to $11.20 per share, versus its prior outlook of $10.10 to $10.40 per share. The company now projects revenue of $10.4 revenue to $10.6 billion, versus earlier forecast of $9.2 billion to $9.3 billion in revenue. For the current quarter, Valeant expects earnings of $2.40 to $2.50 per share, on revenue of $2.45 billion to $2.55 billion. Analysts had projected earnings of $2.45 per share on revenue of $2.56 billion in revenue. The Laval, Canada-based company posted a quarterly profit of $73.7 million, or $0.21 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $22.6 million, or $0.07 per share. Excluding items, the company earned $2.36 per share, beating analysts' estimates of $2.34 per share. Its revenue gained 16 percent to $2.19 billion, versus analysts' expectations of $2.15 billion. The average estimate among 8 Estimize users was for earnings of $2.34 per share and revenue of $2.15 billion. Its organic same store sales climbed 15 percent in the quarter. "Our first quarter results demonstrate the strong performance of our diversified business model as we exceeded our first quarter guidance despite losing $140 million in revenue and $0.12 in Cash EPS to foreign exchange headwinds," stated J. Michael Pearson, chairman and chief executive officer. "The Company delivered exceptional double digit organic growth for the third quarter in a row, driven by the strength of most of our business units around the world." Valeant shares gained 1.70 percent to close at $205.46 yesterday.