AmerisourceBergen Profit Rises 22%

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (TheStreet) -- AmerisourceBergen's (ABC Quote) fiscal fourth-quarter report dazzled analysts as earnings and revenue for the quarter easily beat expectations.

AmerisourceBergen reported net income of $130.1 million, or 44 cents a share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, rising from year-ago earnings of $114.9 million, or 37 cents a share.

Revenue rose 9% from a year ago to a record $18.72 billion, the company said.

On average, analysts expected AmerisourceBergen would post a profit of 40 cents a share on revenue of $18.06 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Looking ahead, AmerisourceBergen expects earnings for fiscal year 2010 to be in the range of $1.82 to $1.92 a share, compared to consensus targets of $1.84 a share. Revenue growth for the year is expected to rise between 5% and 7%, which would equate to $73.6 billion to $74.9 billion based on full-year 2009 revenue. Analysts are looking for revenue of about $73.9 billion for the 2010 fiscal year.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in New York.

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