Hospira (NYSE:HSP) bested Wall Street expectations during its 3rd quarter, bringing in over $1 billion in sales during the 3 months ended September 30.
Hospira posted Q3 2013 profits of $1.9 million, or 1¢ per diluted share, on sales of $1.01 billion. That’s a profit gain of 58% on sales growth of 1.4% compared with the same period last year. Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, earnings per share were 51¢, about 6¢ better than Wall Street’s consensus estimate.
CEO F. Michael Ball characterized the quarter as one of "continued progress" in key areas.
“We were especially pleased to receive European approval in the quarter of our biosimilar infliximab, Inflectra – the 1st monoclonal antibody biosimilar to be approved in Europe," Ball said in prepared remarks. "We are also seeing continued demand for the new premix versions of our branded sedation agent, Precedex. At the same time, we have made meaningful advances in both our supply recovery efforts and quality-improvement initiatives. We believe our progress across these fronts is positioning Hospira for a stronger, more competitive future, which we believe will provide sustainable, long-term growth and value to our shareholders."
The company continues to expect its full year earnings to fall somewhere between $2.00 and $2.10 EPS, with all other guidance remaining as previously reported, per the regulatory filing. The news sent HSP shares up 2.2% to $40.87 apiece as of about 2:10 p.m. today.
