LabCorp Q1 Profit Soars, Revenues Climb; Lifts FY16 Forecast - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LH) or LabCorp reported Monday that its attributable net earnings in the first quarter were $160.2 million or $1.55 per share, compared to $3.1 million or $0.04 per share last year.

Adjusted earnings per share, excluding amortization, restructuring and special items, were $2.02 in the quarter, compared to $1.76 last year. The Company's results included a net gain in the quarter of $0.05 per share on the sale of investment securities from its venture fund.

On average, 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected loss of $1.96 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net revenue for the quarter was $2.30 billion, an increase of 29.5 percent over last year's $1.77 billion. Analysts were looking for revenues of $2.19 billion.

The company noted that the Covance acquisition contributed $687.3 million in net revenue during the quarter, compared to $267.2 million last year, driving an increase of 23.7 percent year over year due to strong demand and the inclusion of Covance's financial results for the entire quarter.

LabCorp Diagnostics contributed the remainder of the increase of 5.8 percent, primarily due to solid organic growth and tuck-in acquisitions, partially offset by the impact from currency.

Looking ahead, for fiscal 2016, the company raised adjusted earnings per share guidance to $8.55 to $8.95, versus prior guidance of $8.45 to $8.85. This reflects growth of 8 percent to 13 percent over last year's $7.91 per share. Analysts expect earnings of $8.71 per share for the year.

Net revenue growth is now expected to be 8.5 percent to 10.5 percent over 2015 net revenue of $8.51 billion. This is an increase from prior guidance of 7.5 percent to 9.5 percent.

The latest outlook reflects the impact from approximately 40 basis points of negative currency, while previous outlook included approximately 100 basis points of negative currency.