Thursday, 5 August 2010

Drug maker Pfizer posts profit growth

On Tuesday reported a 9 percent rise in second-quarter profit, trouncing Wall Street expectations as revenue jumped 58 percent due to favourable currency rates and its mega-acquisition of fellow drug maker Wyeth last October. Shares jumped 5 percent on the surprisingly strong report.

The maker of cholesterol blockbuster Lipitor and impotence pill Viagra said net income for the three months ended July 4 rose to $2.48 billion, or 31 cents per share. A year ago, income was $2.26 billion, or 34 cents a share. Pfizer has since sold millions of new shares to help pay for Wyeth.

Pfizer, the world’s biggest drug maker by sales, reported revenue of $17.33 billion, up from $10.98billion last year, mainly due to $5.4 billion from Wyeth products. U.S. sales jumped 63 percent and foreign sales, 54 percent.

Excluding 31 cents in one-time items, income was $4.96 billion, or 62 cents a share. Those items included $1.1 billion before taxes for integrating Wyeth’s systems, employee severance and other restructuring, plus $2.1 billion before taxes for various charges related to buying Wyeth.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected 52 cents a share on revenue of $16.65 billion.

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