Globe says TLC shares soar 20 per cent on news of deal
TLC The Laser Center Inc LZR
Shares issued 34,192,456 Apr 8 close $57.45
Fri 9 Apr 99 In the News
The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that a marketing coup in
the United States by TLC The Laser Center Inc. sent the stock price
rocketing ahead 20 per cent yesterday to a new 52-week high, with analysts
saying, "You ain't seen nothin' yet." In the wake of TLC's joint venture
with Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest health management organizations,
or HMOs, in the U.S., analysts began lifting their earnings estimates and
stock price targets for the market leader in laser vision correction (LVC)
surgery. Cameron Groome, an analyst with First Marathon Securities Inc. in
Toronto, figures there are 53 million people in North America aged 20 to 45
who are candidates for laser correction. About 1 per cent already have been
treated and if one-third of the remaining people opt for the procedure, Mr.
Groome says the market potential is $40-billion (U.S.). Toronto-based TLC
claims to have a 20-per-cent market share currently. Mr. Groome has raised
his profit forecast for fiscal 1999 to 35 cents (U.S.) a share from an
earlier estimate of 27 cents, and for fiscal 2000, to $1.30 from 85 cents. |
