Drugmaker Actavis says first-quarter revenue jumped 59 percent after buying Allergen

Drugmaker Actavis said Monday that its $66 billion purchase of Botox maker Allergan helped boost its revenue 59 percent in the last quarter.

Shares of Actavis PLC rose $9.43, or 3.2 percent, to $302.25 in afternoon trading Monday.

Actavis closed its deal to buy Allergan in March after outbidding drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals for the company. Actavis plans to change its corporate name to Allergan this year.

The Dublin-based company reported a first-quarter loss of $512 million, $1.85 per share, compared to net income of $96.5 million, or 55 cents per share, a year ago.

Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to $4.30 per share, topping Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $3.84 per share.

Revenue rose to $4.23 billion in the period from $2.66 billion a year ago, topping Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $4.05 billion.

Actavis expects full-year earnings in the range of $17 to $18.50 per share, with revenue in the range of $20.5 billion to $21 billion. Analysts expected earnings of $17.64 per share and revenue of $21.6 billion, according to FactSet.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on ACT at http://www.zacks.com/ap/ACT

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