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Thanks to favourable currency rates and its acquisition of rival Wyeth in October, US pharmaceutical Pfizer has reported a 9% rise in second-quarter profit.
The results came in well ahead of Wall Street forecasts, as revenue rose 58%.
For the three months to July 4 net income rose to $2.48bn (£1.6bn), or 31 cents per share, for the company which produces impotence pill Viagra and cholesterol blockbuster Liptor.
At the same time in 2009, income was $2.26bn, or 34 cents a share. To help pay for the acquisition of Wyeth, Pfizer sold millions of new shares.
Mainly because of $5.4bn from Wyeth products, revenue for the world’s largest drug maker came in at $17.33bn, up from $10.98bn last year. US sales increased 63% and foreign sales shot up 54%.
Excluding 31 cents in one-time items, income was $4.96 billion, or 62 cents a share. Those items included $1.1 billion before taxes for integrating Wyeth’s systems, employee severance and other restructuring, plus $2.1 billion before taxes for various charges related to buying Wyeth.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected 52 cents a share on revenue of $16.65 billion.
Shares rallied 86 cents, or 5.6%, to close at $16.34 on Tuesday.
Wyeth is Pfizer’s third major purchase in nine years. Still, Pfizer is reportedly one of three huge companies interested in US biotech firm Genzyme, if France’s Sanofi-Aventis cannot close on its reported $18 billion offer.
Copyright © Press Association 2010
