Valeant narrows loss, expects to cut debt

Valeant Pharmaceuticals shares jumped after the drugmaker said it expects to cut more debt.

The company beat earnings expectations Tuesday and said it expects to repay over $5 billion in debt earlier than expected. Shares rose 10 percent at the opening bell.

Valeant's debt levels have swelled in recent years because of acquisitions, but the Laval, Quebec company, has been working to reduce its overall debt load. The company completed the sale of its Dendreon unit and used proceeds to pay down $811 million in loans. It also plans to sell iNova and Obagi for $930 million and $190 million, respectively.

The company reported a narrower second-quarter loss of $38 million, or 11 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $1.05 per share, topping the per-share projections of 97 cents from analyst, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.

But revenue fell 8 percent to $2.23 billion, a bit shy of most expectations.

Valeant also lowered its full-year revenue outlook and now expects between $8.7 billion and $8.9 billion instead of a range of $8.9 billion to $9.1 billion.

Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. have risen roughly 6 percent since the beginning of the year. The stock has declined 30 percent in the last 12 months.

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

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Keywords: Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Earnings Report