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Biotech / Medical : Merck -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (1014)	10/16/1998 8:54:00 AM
From: Nick	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1580

Merck posts solid 3Q Drug company earnings jump 15%, beat Wall Street estimates by a penny October 16, 1998: 8:21 a.m. ET Biogen holding $1B drug - Oct. 6, 1998 Merck posts 14% gain - July 21, 1998 Merck sparks drug sell-off - July 21, 1998 Merck NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Pharmaceutical maker Merck & Co. posted a 15 percent jump in third quarter profits Friday, beating out Wall Street estimates by a penny. Merck posted net income of $1.37 billion, or $1.12 per diluted share, for the quarter ended in September, up 15 percent over year-ago profits of $1.2 billion, or 97 cents a share. Analysts were expecting Merck to post earnings of $1.11 a share, according to First Call consensus estimates. Sales for the quarter were $6.8 billion, up 15 percent from $5.9 billion a year earlier. "Sales growth for the quarter and the first nine months of 1998 was led by the established major products and newer products, including those launched this year, as well as growth from the Merck-Medco Managed Care business and the effect of the AMI restructuring," said Raymond V. Gilmartin, company chairman, president and chief executive officer. "Solid volume gains in both our domestic and international operations contributed to the third-quarter results." For the first nine months, Merck posted earnings per share of $3.14, up from $2.72 per share last year. Net income was $3.8 billion, compared with $3.4 billion last year. In July, Merck sold its half interest in DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co. to DuPont for $2.6 billion cash, resulting in an after-tax gain of $1.25 billion in the third quarter. That gain, however, was largely offset by a charge related to the restructuring of AMI, a research-based pharmaceutical company. As part of the restructuring, Merck acquired control of AMI and took a $1.04 billion charge for acquired research. Merck also recorded additional after-tax expenses of $193.1 million for nonrecurring charges, primarily environmental remediation costs and asset write-offs. Shares of Merck (MRK) finished up 3-7/8 at 133-1/4 on the New York Stock Exchange.