Update: Bausch & Lomb Falls on Slight Drop in Sales
Updated from 1:02 p.m. EDT
Shares of
Bausch & Lomb
(BOL)
fell more than 20% Wednesday after the big maker of contact lens and solutions reported a slight drop in second-quarter sales, although operating earnings rose 38%, meeting Wall Street's expectations.
The company also said that it was negotiating to acquire an unidentified pharmaceutical company overseas and that it could reach a definitive agreement on a deal as early as the end of July. It said the planned acquisition would not add to its earnings until 2002.
Bausch & Lomb closed Wednesday regular trading at 61 3/4, down 17 1/16 or 22%
For the second quarter ended June 24, the Rochester, N.Y.-based company said that net earnings from continuing operations rose to $40 million, or 74 cents a diluted share, from $28.9 million, or 49 cents a share a year earlier. The consensus estimate of analysts polled by
TheStreet Recommends
First Call/Thomson Financial
was 49 cents a share.
Revenue from continuing operations fell to $452.9 million from $453.3 million a year ago. They "were negatively affected by short-term market issues in our U.S. lens care and pharmaceutical businesses," said William Carpenter, chairman and chief executive of Bausch & Lomb, in a statement. The vision care business posted a 2% decline and the pharmaceuticals business was down 12%.
The earnings figures for the second quarter exclude $8.4 million in pretax charges, with $3.7 million related to the company's
failed attempt to buy
Wesley Jessen VisionCare
(WJCO)
and $4.7 million related to the settlement of a consumer class action lawsuit.
Including one-time items, net income fell 80%, to $34.6 million, or 64 cents a share, from $173.4 million, or $2.94 a share, a year earlier.
