AmerisourceBergen Cuts FY16 Adj. EPS Guidance - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - AmerisourceBergen Corp. (ABC) announced the company now expects fiscal year adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $5.44 to $5.54, a reduction from prior expectations of $5.73 to $5.83. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report profit per share of $5.78. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. The company estimates revenue growth of approximately 8 percent for fiscal 2016.

"Looking ahead, we expect our gross profit in the second half of the year to be negatively impacted by certain accelerating headwinds, including an increase in the rate of generic deflation, and a lower contribution from new generic launches. In addition, an internal strategic initiative we had launched to increase sales of PRxO Generics and to increase our independent retail segment revenues is ramping slower than we had anticipated," Steven Collis, CEO of AmerisourceBergen, stated.

For fiscal 2017, the company's preliminary expectation is to grow adjusted earnings per share in the range of 4 percent to 6 percent above the midpoint of new fiscal 2016 guidance.

"The headwinds that are impacting the second half of our fiscal 2016 are expected to continue well into fiscal 2017. In addition, recent contract renewals combined with expenses related to some key investments in our information technology systems and infrastructure are expected to negatively impact our growth rate in fiscal 2017," said Collis.

AmerisourceBergen reported that in its second quarter ended March 31, 2016, adjusted earnings per share increased 15.9 percent to $1.68. GAAP earnings per share were $2.68 for the March quarter of fiscal 2016. Revenue increased 9.3 percent to $35.7 billion in the quarter.

The company also announced that its board authorized a new regular share repurchase program which, together with available capacity under the existing regular share repurchase program, permits the company to purchase up to $750 million in shares of its common stock, subject to market conditions.