Why Valeant Missed the Mark Despite an Earnings Beat

[cnxvideo id=”625481″ placement=”ros”]When Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (NYSE: VRX) reported its fourth-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Tuesday, the company said that it had $1.26 in EPS and $2.4 billion in revenue. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters had called for $1.21 in EPS and revenue of $2.34 billion. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $2.50 on $2.79 billion in revenue.

The decrease in revenues for the quarter was primarily driven by a reduction in product sales from the existing business of $310 million and the negative impact of foreign currency exchange of $43 million. Revenues in the quarter were further impacted by a drop in realized pricing by 3%, along with divestitures and discontinuations of $16 million.

Valeant reported its business segments as follows:

• The Bausch + Lomb/International segment reported fourth quarter 2016 revenues of $1.176 billion as compared to $1.187 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015.
• The Branded Rx segment delivered revenues of $829 million versus to $1.002 billion last year. The shortfall in quarterly revenues as compared to the same period in the prior year was due to declines driven mainly by the Salix and Dermatology business.
• The U.S. Diversified Products segment reported revenues of $398 million as compared to $568 million last year. The shortfall in quarterly revenues as compared to the prior year was primarily driven by lower volumes in Neurology.

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In terms of guidance for the 2017 full year, the company expects to see revenues in the range of $8.90 billion to $9.10 billion with an adjusted EBITDA between $3.55 billion and $3.70 billion. The consensus estimates are $4.76 in EPS and $8.97 billion in revenue for the full year.

On the books, Valeant’s cash and cash equivalents totaled $542 million at the end of the quarter, down from $597 million in the same period from last year.

Joe Papa, board chair and chief executive, commented:

Today, we announced financial results that delivered on expectations and demonstrated our commitment to creating the new Valeant. Over the past few months, our teams worked to stabilize and strengthen our core businesses, resolve legacy issues, improve operational processes, launch new products, and improve the balance sheet and capital structure. We paid all 2017 amortizations and reduced debt by $519 million in the fourth quarter. We agreed to divest a number of assets, including several skincare brands, our Dendreon business and smaller international interests. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved our new psoriasis treatment, SILIQ, and we resubmitted our glaucoma treatment, latanoprostene bunod in February 2017.

Shares of Valeant were trading down 8.5% at $15.29 on Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $22.29 and a 52-week trading range of $13.00 to $70.43.

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