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| Quintiles CEO Tom Pike |
Quintiles ($Q), the world's largest CRO, is raising its annual profit projection as new partnerships and soaring income made up for flat revenue in the third quarter.
The company hauled in about $2 billion in revenue, roughly unchanged from the same period last year, and increased its net income 28.2% to $66.8 billion, a leap largely due to cost cuts and expense reductions. Now, Quintiles its raising its annual earnings projection to as much as 18.1% above last year, expecting up to $2.09 per share.
Driving that optimism is a 29% third-quarter spike in new business wins, totaling more than $1.3 billion and saddling Quintiles with a backlog of $9.6 billion, the company said. That makes for Quintiles' 5th consecutive quarter of $1 billion or more in new business, affirming investor confidence and giving the company the industry's largest backlog, CEO Tom Pike said.
"It is an indication that our strategy and solutions are relevant to our customers as they address the opportunities and challenges of the changing healthcare landscape," Pike said in a statement. "We continue to invest in growth areas of our business to bolster our scientific, therapeutic and data analytics expertise and we are confident that our focus of delivering value to customers translates into value creation for our shareholders."
The company's product development segment grew revenue by 5.5% to $714.2 million, while its healthcare services business fell 7.6% to $218.5 million on the quarter.
Quintiles' spike in new deals sets it apart from competitor Parexel ($PRXL), which watched its new business wins drop nearly 30% sequentially last quarter, sending the CROs stock price down as much as 17%.
- read the results