| Brent Hanson - LasikFraud.com 2005-04-26, 5:53 pm |
| "By product category, contact lenses, pharmaceuticals, and cataract and
vitreoretinal surgery products all posted sales gains, which more than
offset a decline in sales of refractive surgery products, the company said."
======================
Bausch & Lomb eclipses estimates, raises view
BYLINE: Dan Burrows, MarketWatch; mailto:dburrows@marketwatch.com ; Dan
Burrows is a reporter for MarketWatch in New York.
BODY: NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Bausch & Lomb Inc. said Tuesday it raised
its full-year earnings forecast after first-quarter profits easily eclipsed
Wall Street's view, helped by strong sales of ReNu and MoistureLoc lens-care
solutions.
The Rochester, N.Y., maker of contact lenses and other eye health products
(BOL) said fiscal 2005 earnings are now projected at $3.45 a share, 5 cents
higher than its prior outlook.
Analysts polled by Thomson First Call were looking for earnings, on average,
of $3.42 a share.
Shares in Bausch & Lomb added $5.14, or 7.2%, to finish at $76.47.
Before the markets opened, the company said first-quarter profit rose 47% to
$34.5 million, or 63 cents a share, from $23.5 million, or 43 cents a share,
in the same period a year earlier.
Analysts' average view was for earnings, on average, of 51 cents a share.
Sales for the three months ended March 26 increased 8.6% to $554.3 million
from $510.3 million a year ago, and ahead of the average estimate for $548.4
million in sales.
Bausch & Lomb said earnings were helped by greater-than-planned sales of
lens care products, which offer higher gross margins.
"While the majority of the lens-care upside was associated with the timing
of a major customer promotion that shifted sales from the second quarter to
the first, we believe some of it was incremental to our previous
expectations," said Chief Executive Ronald Zarrella in a statement.
By product category, contact lenses, pharmaceuticals, and cataract and
vitreoretinal surgery products all posted sales gains, which more than
offset a decline in sales of refractive surgery products, the company said.
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