(By Balaseshan) MEDTOX Scientific Inc. (NASDAQ:MTOX), a medical laboratories and research company, reported a 11.7% decrease in second quarter earnings due to the merger related costs. Earnings and revenue missed Street's expectations.
In addition, MEDTOX said it would hold a special meeting of stockholders on July 31, to seek stockholder approval of the proposed merger with Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings(NYSE:LH). The record date for determining the stockholders entitled to vote at the meeting is June 27. The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2012.
Quarterly earnings were $1.24 million or $0.14 per share, down from $1.40 million or $0.16 per share last year.
The latest quarter results included about $515,000 of expenses attributable to the planned merger with LabCorp. These costs are included in selling, general and administrative on the income statement.
Revenue grew 11.3% to $29.98 million. Analysts had expected a profit of $0.21 per share on revenue of $30.28 million. 23441 - 21272
Revenue from Laboratory segment grew 10.2% to $23.44 million, helped by a 8.4% increase in revenue from drugs-of-abuse testing and a 17.7% growth in clinical laboratory revenue.
Revenue from Diagnostic segment grew 15.5% to $6.54 million, on improved sales in the workplace drugs-of-abuse and government markets with its newly introduced EZ-SCREEN cup device, and increased sales of PROFILE-V sold into the hospital market with its MEDTOXScan Reader.
Gross margin for the quarter improved to 42.1% from 41.2% in the previous year quarter.
MTOX ended Wednesday's regular session down 0.04% at $26.92. The stock has been trading between $11.64 and $27.04 for the past 52 weeks.