Forest Laboratories' 1Q Results: Postgame Scorecard

Forest Laboratories (NYSE:FRX) saw a decrease in profit as well as in revenue.

Earnings and Revenue The company experienced stronger-than-expected EPS and revenues. The company reported adjusted net income of 28 cents a share versus the 25 cents a share estimate and revenues of $821.1 million versus the $808.3 million estimate. The estimates of 18 analysts ranged from profit of 16 cents to profit of 36 cents.

The company's net income for the quarter was $55.3 million. According to the reported number, this is down 78.6% from last year's levels. Revenue fell 28.4% from $1.15 billion in the same period last year.

Company Fundamental Trends The company has now reported lower net income at least in each of the last four quarters. Revenue declined last quarter after shrinking 7.2% to $1.05 billion in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year.

History Against Expectations The company has now topped analyst estimates for the last three quarters.

Official Comment: Howard Solomon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Forest, said: "We have just completed our first fiscal quarter following the loss of patent exclusivity for Lexapro. Our earnings guidance for fiscal year 2013 reflects the impact of Lexapro's patent expiry and the operational strategies to offset this loss which were initiated years ago. We have deliberately and strategically diversified our product portfolio so that we would not be dependent on any single product or therapeutic area. Today, we have nine new products that have recently reached or which we expect to reach the marketplace and there are more we have in development and more we are evaluating to replace Lexapro and eventually Namenda when its patent expires. We are pleased with the performance this quarter of three of our most recent product launches, Teflaro, Daliresp and Viibryd, which were introduced last year. It is still early days for these products but they are performing well in-line with our expectations. Two of our other promoted products, Bystolic and Savella, also turned in solid performances during the quarter. It is worth noting, that for the first time since launch, sales of Bystolic exceeded $100 million in a calendar quarter, achieving sales of $107.8 million, representing growth of 38.2% year over year and 11.2% over last quarter. Collectively, our next generation products, Bystolic, Savella, Teflaro, Daliresp and Viibryd had sales of $200 million in the quarter, representing 63% growth in comparison to the comparable prior year quarter.

Estimates provided by Zacks Investment Research and company fundamentals from Xignite Financials.