Cardinal health profits rise on sale of technology and services arms

US-headquartered medical products manufacturer Cardinal Health has said that its Q4 profits were augmented by gains made from the USD 3.3bn sale of its pharmaceutical technologies and services segment.

The company racked up net profits of USD 902.2m, or USD 2.33 per share, compared with USD 321.1m, or USD 0.76 per share for the previous year's quarter. Revenue rose to USD 22.3bn from USD 21.3bn, while earnings from discontinued operations reached USD 664.5m.

Cardinal revealed that it earned USD 0.63 per share. Excluding one-time items and charges from continuing operations, the company made a profit of USD 0.89 per share. In a Thomson Financial poll of analysts, the expected gains were USD 0.87 per share on revenue of USD 22.6bn.

The drop in profit from continuing operations was attributed to the USD 1.4bn purchase of US medical devices firm, Viasys.

Cardinal's healthcare supply chain services and pharmaceutical business grew four per cent to rest at USD 19.6bn, while sales for that segment increased five per cent to rest at USD 1.9bn.

For the full year, Cardinal earned USD 1.9bn, or USD 4.77 per share, compared with a profit of USD 1bn, or USD 2.33 per share for the previous year. Excluding discontinued operations, the company earned USD 2.07 per share.