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Acorda (ACOR) Q1 Earnings Miss Estimates, Sales Down Y/Y

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Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (ACOR - Free Report) reported adjusted earnings of 14 cents per share in the first quarter of 2018, which significantly missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 73 cents. However, the company incurred a loss of 8 cents a year ago.

Shares of Acorda slipped more than 1% following its earnings release. However, the stock has surged 45% in a year’s time versus the industry’s 13.5% decline.

 

Total revenues came in at $106.2 million, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $126 million by 18.8%. Moreover, the top line declined 11.1% year over year due to lower net product as well as royalty revenues.

Quarter in Detail

Majority of Acorda’s net product revenues were generated by the company’s key drug Ampyra, which raked in sales of $102.8 million in the reported quarter. Revenues decreased around 8.2% year over year and 35.3%, sequentially. This fall can mainly be attributed to modest inventory levels during the fourth quarter of 2017, which normalized by the end of the first quarter of 2018.

Notably, in the reported quarter, royalty revenues declined 28.9% to $3.2 million from the year-ago figure of $4.5 million.

Acorda’s research and development (R&D) expenses dropped 34.3% year over year to $28.9 million owing to corporate restructuring, which occurred in 2017.

Selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses also lowered 5.7% to $43.4 million.

Pipeline Updates

In February 2018, Acorda announced that the FDA has accepted the new drug application (NDA) for its Parkinson's disease candidate, Inbrija, for review. A response from the regulatory agency is expected on Oct 5. The acceptance was supported by positive safety and efficacy data from a phase III SPAN-PD study as well as results from the two long-term safety studies on PD patients. Acorda has also submitted regulatory applications for Inbrija in the EU in March.

2018 Guidance

The company maintained its Ampyra net sales view for 2018 in the range of $330-$350 million. This is lower than the Ampyra full year 2017 revenue of $543.3 million due to the expected generic entry of the drug in the United States in July, 2018.

The company continues to project its R&D and SG&A expenses for 2018 in the band of $100-$110 million and $170-$180 million, respectively.

Acorda awaits a positive cash balance in excess of $300 million by the end of 2018.

Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. Quote

 

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Acorda carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the health care sector are Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (LGND - Free Report) , Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. . While Ligand and Infinity sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), OncoMed carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Ligand’s earnings per share estimates have moved north from $4.20 to $4.43 for 2018 in the last 30 days. The company delivered a positive surprise in three of the trailing four quarters with an average beat of 24.88%. Share price of the company has surged 36.9% over a year.

Infinity’s loss per share estimates have narrowed from $1.69 to 74 cents for 2018 and from 94 cents to 66 cents for 2019 in the last 60 days. The company pulled off a positive surprise in three of the last four quarters with an average beat of 7.87%.

OncoMed’s loss per share estimates have narrowed from $1.21 to 98 cents for 2018 and from $1.31 to $1.17 for 2019 in the last 60 days. The company came up with a positive surprise in all of the trailing four quarters with an average beat of 57.23%.

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