“Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) reported fourth-quarter earnings that topped analysts’ estimates after taking a tax benefit for a hepatitis C drug that failed last year.
Net income rose to $925 million, or 56 cents a share, from $852 million, or 50 cents, a year earlier, the New York-based drugmaker said today in a statement. Excluding certain items, profit was 47 cents a share, 5 cents better than the average of 15 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The earnings included an $83 million tax benefit the company recorded from Inhibitex Inc., acquired in 2012 for a hepatitis C drug that was abandoned after patients suffered heart ailments in studies.
Chief Executive Officer Lamberto Andreotti called 2012 a transition year for Bristol-Myers because it lost exclusive U.S. sales rights for its top-selling blood thinner Plavix and must begin to rely on new products such as its skin-cancer drug Yervoy. The company has “continued to build the post-Plavix portfolio and operating structure that provide a solid foundation for our future growth,” he said in a statement.
The growth may have to wait past 2013, which the company projected as another year of declining results. Bristol-Myers reduced the 2013 forecast it gave two years ago to $1.78 a share to $1.88 a share, after promising at least $1.95 per share. The forecast was in line with Wall Street’s lower estimates.
Bristol-Myers also predicted annual sales of $16.2 billion to $17 billion, compared with analysts’ estimates of $16.61 billion…”
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