Express Scripts Raises Full Year Earnings Guidance (ESRX)
Express Scripts Holding Company (NASDAQ: ESRX) reported on Monday that fiscal first quarter earnings jumped 39%, driven by last year’s acquisition of Medco Health Solution. The Company also raised a tad its full-year earnings outlook. Shares gained about 2.10% in extended trading hours.
The St. Louis based Express Scripts raised its earnings outlook by 3 cents a share for the fiscal 2013 as it expects gross profits to improve significantly during the course of this year.
For the fiscal first quarter, Express Scripts reported a net income of $373 million against a profit of $267.8 million, in the year-earlier quarter. EPS however fell to 45 cents from 55 cents as the number of outstanding shares increased. Excluding onetime items such as acquisition related expenses adjusted earnings climbed to 99 cents a share from 73 cents a share.
Revenue during the quarter jumped more than two times to $26.06 billion, driven by inclusion of Medco.
Analysts’ consensus estimate was for earnings of 97 cents a share on revenue of $25.55 billion.
Adjusted claims, which is a gauge on monthly prescriptions filled up in retail pharmacies and 90-day fills through Express Scripts mail-order business—surged 102% to 390 million, in the fiscal first quarter.
Looking ahead at full-year, Express Scripts now expects earnings to be in the range of $4.23 to $4.33 a share on adjusted basis up from its earlier guidance of $4.20 a share to $4.30 a share. For the fiscal second quarter, the Company expects adjusted earnings from continuing operations of $1.08 to $1.12 a share.
Analysts’ consensus estimate was for earnings of $4.26 a share for the fiscal 2013 and $1.04 a share for fiscal second quarter.
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Post Written By: Ed Liston
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.
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