BURLINGTON – Labcorp on Thursday reported a third-quarter profit of $352.8 million yet its overall financials didn’t meet Wall Street expectations. But CEO Adam Schechter said the company “made important strategic progress” and disclosed an acceleration of its planned spinoff of its clinical development process.
“[W]e are accelerating the planned spin-off of our Clinical Development business to mid-2023 pending customary approvals,” Schechter disclosed. The move was announced in July.
“Labcorp made important strategic progress this quarter and is well positioned to deliver sustained value and growth,” he added.
“We are focusing on science, innovation and technology to serve our customers’ needs. Our Diagnostics Base Business performed well, and our Drug Development Base Business fundamentals remain strong, despite challenging year-over-year comparisons due to COVID-19.
“We continue to manage inflationary headwinds and labor constraints through our LaunchPad initiatives.”
LaunchPad refers to the lab giant’s “business process improvement initiative” announced last December that “targeting savings of $350 million over the next three years.”
Financial report details
On a per-share basis, Lab Corp said it had profit of $3.90. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $4.68 per share.
The results did not meet Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $4.71 per share.
The medical laboratory operator posted revenue of $3.61 billion in the period, also missing Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $3.83 billion.
LabCorp expects full-year earnings in the range of $19.25 to $20.25 per share.
Read the full financial report online.
