Why Lantheus Holdings Inc Skyrocketed Higher Today

What happened

Lantheus (NASDAQ: LNTH) is up 27% at 12:30 p.m. after announcing solid fourth-quarter earnings after the closing bell yesterday with positive expectations for the year ahead.

The company also announced a deal with General Electric's (NYSE: GE) healthcare division for one of its pipeline products, which should make long-term investors happy.

Image source: Getty Images.

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So what

Revenue was up just 4.5% to $74.4 million, but that takes into account the divestiture of the company's Canadian and Australian radiopharmacy businesses. Sales of TechneLite, which is used in nuclear medicine diagnostic imaging tests, grew 43.7% year over year. And sales of the company's ultrasound contrast agent Definity also helped boost revenue with sales up 18.1% year over year.

Lantheus recorded a profit of $4.9 million in the fourth quarter, which was higher than the $3.9 million in the year-ago quarter. Unfortunately since the company did a secondary offering last year, there are more shares outstanding, so when expressed in earnings per share, the company made $0.13 per share, the same as it did a year ago.

Now what

Management guided for revenue to fall between $312 million and $317 million, an increase of between 3.3% and 5% compared to 2016. The company doesn't give straight earnings guidance, but adjusted earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) is expected to be in the $79 million to $82 million range, slightly higher than the $78.3 million in 2016.

Further down the line, management is excited about the deal with General Electric for flurpiridaz F 18, a positron emission tomography (PET) myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) used for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. GE Healthcare is paying $5 million upfront and will fund the second phase 3 clinical trial for flurpiridaz F 18. If the imaging agent is approved, Lantheus could get $60 million in regulatory and sales milestone payments and is due tiered double-digit royalties on U.S. sales and mid-single-digit royalties on sales outside of the U.S.

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Brian Orelli has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of General Electric. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.