PDL BioPharma (PDLI) Q4 Earnings Beat, Revenues Rise Y/Y

PDL BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDLI) has reported earnings of 17 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2017, substantially surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 3 cents. However, the company reported a loss of 5 cents in the year-ago quarter.

The company generated total revenues of $68 million in the quarter, up 2.3% from $66.5 million, registered a year earlier. This upside is mainly attributable to rise in royalty rights primarily on the back of an increase in fair value of the Depomed royalty asset in the reported period.

Notably, the company received cash payments of $32.8 million from the royalty rights acquired from Depomed, primarily related to Glumetza, a product marketed by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE:VRX) . An authorized generic version of Glumetza was also launched by a Valeant subsidiary in February 2017 for which, PDL BioPharma got royalties per the same terms as the branded Glumetza agreement.

PDL BioPharma’s shares rallied 19% in after-hours trading on Mar 8 owing to higher earnings. Moreover, the company has outperformed the industry in a year’s time. The stock has jumped 23.2% against the industry’s decrease of 3.5%.

Quarter in Detail

Revenues included royalties of $4.5 million from licenses to the Queen et al. patents, interest revenues of $0.8 million and product revenues of $32.6 million (sales of Noden products — Tekturna and Tekturna HCT in the United States and leasing of the LENSAR Laser System).

Revenues of $4.5 million from the Queen et al. licenses were lower than the prior-year figure of $15.5 million. This downside was mainly due to expiration of a patent license agreement of PDL BioPharma with Roche's (OTC:RHHBY) subsidiary, Genentech, for its humanized antibody products. The Queen et al. licenses royalty including royalties from the sale of Biogen’s (NASDAQ:BIIB) multiple sclerosis drug, Tysabri, also declined in the quarter under review on lower sales of the product.

Research and development (R&D) expenses for the fourth quarter came in at $0.7 million, down 63.2% from the level, recorded a year ago.

General and administrative expenses also decreased 22.2% to nearly $9.8 million from the figure in comparable quarter last year.

2017 Results

While full-year sales surged 31% year over year to $320 million, full-year earnings of 64 cents per share were lower than the year-ago tally of 66 cents.

Zacks Rank

PDL BioPharma carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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