(By Balaseshan) PDL BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ: PDLI) reported a 27% jump in quarterly earnings on higher royalties from Herceptin and Avastin sales. Earnings exceeded Wall Street expectations.
Earnings for the fourth quarter were $49.41 million or $0.34 per share, up from $38.94 million or $0.24 per share in the previous year quarter.
Total revenue increased 18.2% to $86.05 million, primarily driven by increased royalties from third quarter 2012 sales of Herceptin and Avastin, which are marketed by Genentech and Roche.
Analysts, on average, polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a profit of $0.32 per share on revenue of $86.08 million for the fourth quarter.
Royalty revenues for the fourth quarter of 2012 are based on third quarter product sales by PDL's licensees. Royalty revenue for the fourth quarter are net of payments made under its February 2011 settlement agreement with Novartis Pharma AG (NYSE: NVS).
Net cash provided by operating activities in 2012 was $210.2 million, compared with $169.8 million in 2011.
At December 31, 2012, PDL had cash, cash equivalents and investments of $148.7 million, compared with $227.9 million at December 31, 2011.
PDLI closed Friday's regular session down 0.57% at $6.95. The stock has been trading between $6.02 and $8.43 for the past 52 weeks.