Ligand Pharmaceuticals 1Q Adjusted Earnings Beat

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc.

reported net income attributable to its shareholders of $6.61 million or $0.30 a share, which was significantly higher than $754 thousand or $0.04 a share in the year-ago quarter. However, excluding special items, its adjusted earnings would have more than tripled to $0.97 a share from $0.30 a share in the same quarter last year. Ligand's total revenues also doubled to $29.6 million from $14.6 million in the previous year quarter. Both earnings and revenue convincingly topped the street expectations of $0.67 a share and $26.45 million. The company disclosed that its royalty revenues jumped to $14.4 million from $10.3 million due to higher royalties from Promacta and Kyprolis. The pharmaceutical firm added that material sales were $5.3 million, up from $3.7 million in the same period in 2015 due to timing of Captisol purchases for use in clinical trials and commercial products. Reacting to the financial numbers, Ligand's CEO, John Higgins, said, "The year is off to a strong start with product approvals and launches from our partners, positive data from multiple programs and robust quarterly growth in revenues. We closed two acquisitions recently, including a major acquisition in the first quarter that will contribute significantly to our portfolio of fully funded programs and financial performance." He continued to say that "In addition, we completed multiple new licensing agreements, including those with our recently acquired OmniAb technology. We look forward to total revenues growing by approximately 60% in 2016, and to the approval and launch of up to five of our partnered products during the year." On Tuesday, the stock fell 2.54%.