Cardinal Health Inc., Healthcare Services Company, reported for the second-quarter ended December 31, 2009. The company's GAAP earnings from continuing operations increased to $230 million or $0.64 per share from $169 million or $0.47 per share in the year-ago quarter.
The company's GAAP earnings from continuing operations include restructuring and employee severance, impairments and loss on sale of assets, litigation (credits)/charges, net, other spinoff costs, and gain on sale of CareFusion stock.
Excluding items, Cardinal Health's non-GAAP earnings from continuing operations for the quarter rose to $207 million or $0.57 per share from $183 million or $0.51 per share in the year-ago quarter. On average, 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.46 per share. Analysts' estimate typically excludes one-time items.
Cardinal Health's net earnings, which include discontinued operations, dropped to $234.5 million or $0.65 per share in the second-quarter of fiscal 2010 from $316.5 million or $0.88 per share in the year-ago quarter. The year-ago quarterly earnings included the results of CareFusion Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cardinal Health. The spinoff of CareFusion was completed last September.
The company's quarterly revenue totaled $24.9 billion, reflecting a 3% rise over $24.1 billion in the year-ago comparable quarter. Wall Street analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $24.77 billion.
“We are encouraged by our performance in the second quarter and in the first half of our fiscal year. These results reflect excellent progress on our key initiatives and customer focus across our businesses, as well as the benefit from external factors that were more pronounced than we had anticipated.” said George Barrett, chairman and CEO of Cardinal Health.
