Gilead Results Crush Estimates; To Buyback Addl. $15 Bln Stock

(RTTNews) - Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD) on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter net earnings of $3.49 billion or $2.18 per share compared with $791 million or $0.47 per share last year.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $2.43 per share compared with $0.55 per share a year ago.

Revenues for the quarter were $7.3 billion compared with $3.1 billion in the prior year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $2.22 per share on revenues of $6.72 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Sales of hepatitis C virus drug Sovaldi surged to $1.73 billion from $139 million last year, while sales of Harvoni totaled $2.11 billion, Gilead said.

For the full year 2015, Gilead expects product sales of $26 billion and $27 billion.

Also Gilead said it plans to pay quarterly dividends of $0.43 per share, beginning in the second quarter of 2015.

The company's board approved the repurchase of up to an additional $15 billion of its common stock. This is in addition to the three-year $5 billion buyback program that was authorized in May 2014 and under which about $3 billion remained as of December. The new buyback program will expire 5 years after the completion of the May 2014 program.