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LabCorp earnings beat Street; shares sell at 10-month high

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By Local Tech Wire

BURLINGTON, N.C. – Laboratory Corporation of American (NYSE: LH) beat Wall Street expectations for the second quarter by 3 cents a share and also met revenue expectations.

LabCorp, one of the world’s largest lab testing firms, reported a profit of $1.30 per share after one-time expenses such as severance costs. Revenues rose to $1.19 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a $1.27 per share profit on revenues of $1.18 billion.

LabCorp shares traded up 68 cents at $68.49. The share price is the highest it has been since last October.

A year ago, LabCorp made a 92 cent per share profit. Revenues increased 3.6 percent from 2008.

"We are very pleased with our second quarter and year-to-date results, which demonstrate the strength of our business and the effectiveness of our strategy,” said David P. King, chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement. “We will continue to focus on our priorities of gaining new customers, maintaining price and controlling costs while advancing our leadership in personalized medicine.”

For 2009, LabCorp forecast a 4 percent increase in revenues and increased profit guidance to between $4.85-495 per share, up from $4.75-4.95.

The forecast does not include impact from LabCorp’s recently announced acquisition of Monogram Biosciences. That deal is expected to close later this year.

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