Kendle Shares Lose Half Their Value On Cut Outlook

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Kendle International Inc. lost half their value Tuesday after the clinical research company said its performance would be "much lower" in the first quarter and would not meet Wall Street expectations.

Shares of the Cincinnati-based company tumbled 51 percent, or $10.92, to $10.44 after earlier falling as low as $8.28, the stock's lowest point since February 2005.

Analyst expectations for the first quarter, as polled by Thomson Reuters, were for profit of 49 cents per share on revenue of $121.3 million. For the year, they expected profit of $2.15 per share.

When the company reported earnings in February, it had forecast profit of $1.55 to $1.85 per share for 2009, or $2.01 to $2.31 per share excluding one-time items.

On a conference call with analysts Tuesday, Kendle said project cancellations, project delays and reductions in new business signings had slashed revenue in the first quarter, according to an SEC filing.

Project cancellations, which had been projected to be 18 percent, higher than in 2007 or 2008, were actually more than 45 percent in the first quarter, Kendle said.