Gilead Swings to Profit, Names CFO

Gilead(GILD) reported a 3-cent earnings beat, strong HIV franchise sales and a new CFO after Thursday's market close.

Net income for the third quarter was $398.3 million, or 42 cents a diluted share, including after-tax stock-based compensation expenses of $31.8 million, compared to a loss of 3 cents in the year-ago quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected 39 cents a share on revenue of $1 billion.

Gilead reported total revenue of $1.1 billion and HIV product sales of $805.8 million in the third quarter of 2007, a 45% increase from $557.3 million for the same period in 2006. The increase was driven primarily by the sales volume growth in Truvada and Atripla (a single-pill combination of Truvada with Bristol-Myers Squibb's(BMY) Sustiva), and beat the Street consensus of $954 million for total product sales and $794 million for the HIV franchise.

Truvada sales were $409.1 million in the recent quarter (beating Street estimates of $390 million), an increase of 32% from $309 million in the third quarter of 2006. Truvada sales accounted for roughly 51% of Gilead's total HIV product sales and about 43% of the company's total product sales in the third quarter of 2007.

Atripla sales came in at $241.1 million (just lighter than the Street consensus of $241 million), compared to $68.4 million recorded in the third quarter of 2006, the drug's first quarter of sales in the U.S. Viread (also for HIV) sales increased 13% to $149.1 million.