By Mariam Sunny
(Reuters) -Laboratory Corp of America Holdings cut its annual profit forecast on Thursday following the spin off of its clinical development business, Fortrea.
The lab operator has been struggling with a shortage of lab monkeys due to curbs on animal imports after a Cambodian supplier was charged in connection with illegal imports into the United States.
However, the company said it expects the supply constraints related to non-human primates (NHP) to be resolved in the third quarter.
“We expect (early development business) to grow in the second half of the year versus the prior year and do not expect impact from NHP supply constraints for the rest of the year,” CEO Adam Schechter said in the earnings conference call.
The company also expects revenue from core business to grow in the range of 11.3%-12.6% for the year, compared with 9.5%-11% estimated earlier.
COVID testing sales are projected to fall between 85% and 89% this year compared with the previous forecast of 80%-90%, the company said.
The life sciences company now expects to earn between $13 and $14 per share on an adjusted basis this year. Analysts on average estimate $14.02 per share, according to Refinitiv data.
Rival Quest Diagnostics beat quarterly profit estimates on Wednesday helped by a rebound in routine test volumes as people returned for regular health checkups which they delayed during the pandemic.
North Carolina-based Labcorp reported a revenue of $699 million from its early development and central labs unit for the quarter ended June 30, lower than the average of three analysts’ estimates of $1.24 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
