Overseas sales help boost Baxter profit

Medical products and services company Baxter International Inc. said Thursday profit rose 11 percent in the fourth quarter, as favorable currency-exchange rates drove up revenue.

The results, which beat Wall Street estimates, came on double-digit sales gains in all three of its businesses: bioscience, medication delivery and renal.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the Deerfield-based company earned $478 million, or 74 cents per share, compared with $431 million a year ago. No per-share figure was provided for the year-ago quarter.

Earnings in the latest quarter included an in-process research and development charge of 2 cents per share related to the company's recently announced deals with Nektar Therapeutics and Nycomed.

Revenue rose 9 percent to $3 billion from $2.76 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Adjusted earnings, excluding certain items, rose 15 percent to 76 cents per share from 66 cents per share a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected profit of 74 cents per share, on revenue of $2.9 billion.

"2007 was a very successful year for our company," Chairman and Chief Executive Robert L. Parkinson Jr. said. "We met or exceeded expectations on all key financial metrics throughout the year."

Sales in the U.S. increased 3 percent to $1.3 billion, and international sales rose 13 percent, including an 11 percentage-point benefit from foreign exchange, to $1.7 billion.

Worldwide sales in the bioscience division, which makes blood therapy products, climbed 16 percent from a year earlier to $1.2 billion. The company cited record sales of Advate, its treatment for hemophilia A.

The medication delivery unit, which makes anesthetics and intravenous therapies, saw sales increase 11 percent to $1.2 billion, while revenue from the renal business rose 12 percent.

The company forecast full-year earnings of $3.10 to $3.18 per share excluding special items, roughly in line with analysts' expectations.

Net income for 2007 was $1.7 billion, or $2.61 per share, up from $1.4 billion, or $2.13 per share, in 2006. Revenue rose 9 percent to $11.3 billion from $10.4 billion.

Baxter shares rose 69 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $62.03 Thursday -- up almost 30 percent from last January.