Omnicare Q1 Profit Rises - Update

(RTTNews) - Pharmaceutical services provider Omnicare Inc. (OCR), Wednesday reported an increase in profit for the first quarter, driven largely by revenue growth and drop in selling, general and administrative costs.

Cincinnati, Ohio-based Omnicare's first-quarter profit rose to $63.8 million or $0.59 per share from $54.4 million or $0.51 per share last year. Adjusted cash earnings from continuing operations for the quarter was $0.91 per share.

On average, nine analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of of $0.90 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Sales for the quarter grew 7.7 percent to $1.57 billion from $1.46 billion last year.

Wall Street analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.55 billion for the first quarter.

Sales at its core Long-Term Care business rose 4.3 percent to $1.19 billion, while Specialty Care group jumped 20 percent to $380 million.

Selling, general and administrative expenses dropped to $186.8 million from $190.7 million a year ago.

"Our strong first-quarter results demonstrate our sound financial footing and the progress we have made as an organization," said John Workman.

Looking forward to the full year 2014, Omnicare continues to see adjusted cash earnings of $3.64 to $3.72 per share and revenues of $6.3 billion to $6.4 billion. Analysts currently expect profit of $3.69 per share on revenues of $6.36 billion for 2014.

OCR is currently trading at $59.00, up $0.46 or 0.79%, on the NYSE.