Phibro Animal Health ($PAHC), the maker of medicated feed, this week upgraded guidance for its 2015 fiscal year and declared a quarterly cash dividend.
In reporting its fiscal first-quarter results, the Teaneck, NJ-based company said in a press release that the new guidance reflected a gain of $4 million based on accelerated licensing revenue and profit for vaccine delivery technology. Phibro, which markets a range of antibiotics, vaccines and specialty nutritional products to the livestock industry, now projects net sales of $739 million to $759 million for the coming fiscal year, a growth of 7% to 10%. That represents an adjusted diluted earnings per share ranging from $1.57 to $1.62.
Net sales for the quarter ended Sept. 30 rose 16% to $187.5 million compared with $162.2 million for the same period last year.
In a separate announcement, the company declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.10 per share on its Class A common stock and Class B common stock, payable Dec. 23, 2014, to stockholders of record at the close of business on December 3, 2014.
"Good volume growth across Animal Health and Mineral Nutrition was the key to the performance," Jack Bendheim, Phibro chief executive, said in a statement. "We are also encouraged by the accelerated receipt of licensing revenue from our vaccine delivery technology."
Following the announcements, shares of the company jumped (Nov. 12) more than 7% to $29.88, representing a gain of $1.96 per share. Trading volume that day was 393,237 shares compared to an average daily volume of 108,078 shares out of 38,955,228 outstanding shares. The stock opened at $29.60 and traded with an intraday range of $29.12 to $31.92.
- read the earnings release
- see the dividend release