Valeant Pharma Trips Over Preliminary Earnings and Guidance

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (NYSE: VRX) reported its preliminary fourth-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Tuesday. The company said it had $2.50 in earnings per share (EPS) on $2.8 billion in revenue. That compares to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters of $2.61 in EPS on $2.75 billion in revenue. The same period from the previous year had $2.58 in EPS on $2.28 billion in revenue.

Note that these results are preliminary results and are subject to change.

It’s also worth mentioning that Valeant’s CEO is on our list of CEOs that need to go.

In terms of guidance for the first quarter, the company expects EPS to be in the range of $1.30 to $1.55 and revenue to total between $2.3 billion and $2.4 billion. The previous guidance given by Valeant predicted that EPS would fall between $2.35 and $2.55 and revenue would be in the range of $2.8 billion to $3.1 billion. The consensus estimates for the first quarter call for $2.63 in EPS on $2.82 billion in revenue.
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J. Michael Pearson, CEO, commented:

The challenges of the past few months are not yet behind us and our goal for 2016 is to better balance our priorities across all of our constituencies – physicians, patients, employees, payors, debt holders and shareholders. I want to again thank all our dedicated employees, as well as the entire management team, for their diligence throughout this difficult time to ensure that the business remains solid.

Pearson continued:

In discussion with the Board, we have assumed lower growth in our U.S. dermatology, gastrointestinal, and woman’s health portfolios, as well as certain geographies like Western Europe, while keeping our expenses largely unchanged.  We plan to work hard to improve these metrics by delivering higher revenues and reducing our costs and, if successful, we hope to beat this guidance in the quarters to come. In the meantime, we are comfortable with our current liquidity position and cash flow generation for the rest of the year, and remain well positioned to meet our obligations.

Shares of Valeant fell nearly 34% to a new 52-week low of $45.30 early Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $137.65 and a 52-week high of $263.81.