Allergan, the maker of the anti-wrinkle Botox treatment, reported its third quarter earnings on the heels of a higher buyout offer from Valeant Pharmaceuticals. Here are some important points to note.
What you need to know: Allergan’s earnings-per-share surpassed analysts’ expectations and were almost 45% higher compared to a year earlier. The Irvine, Calif., -based drugmaker sees profits picking up the pace over the fourth quarter.
Allergan has been on a quest to talk up its value as a standalone company as it fights off a hostile bid from Valeant. The company cut about 13% of its workers, or 1,500 jobs, and eliminated 250 vacant positions in July.
That hasn’t kept Valeant’s advances at bay. The Canada-based drugmaker said Monday that it’s ready to up its bid to at least $200 a share to win the board of directors’ approval prior to a Dec. 18 shareholders meeting. Allergan’s (AGN) shares closed at $182.21 on Friday.
The big number: Profits, when adjusted for one-time items, were $1.78 a share, surpassing analyst estimates of $1.77. Sales were up over 17% year-over-year to $1.82 billion for the quarter. Analysts expected $1.78 billion quarterly revenue, according to Bloomberg data.
Allergan raised its fourth quarter profit estimates to between $1.80 and $1.83 a share.
What you might have missed: Allegan has been fighting off Valeant for over six months after it made an initial offer that valued the company at nearly $47 billion, or about $153 per share. Allergan has rebuffed Valeant’s multiple bids as too low, and balked at Valeant’s business model, which it says focuses on cutting costs at the expense of new drug development.
Activist investor Bill Ackman has been leading the charge for Allergan’s sale. He has succeeded in gaining enough support to hold a special meeting in December where shareholders will be able to replace the current board members with people who are potentially more open to the Valeant offer.
In the meantime, Valeant said it will consider upping its offer price for the current board members’ consideration ahead of that meeting, although no official bid has been provided.
Allergan said it would “carefully consider” any official bid, though continues to express its dismay that the offers to date “have been grossly inadequate and significantly undervalued Allergan,” the company said.
