What happened
The stock of medical waste handling specialist Stericycle (SRCL -0.43%) wasn't the picture of health this week. The company's shares took a double-digit ding after publishing its latest quarterly earnings release on Thursday. All told, across the week Stericycle's share price declined by over 15%, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
So what
For its fourth quarter of 2022, Stericycle managed to grow its revenue 2% year over year to $670 million. That, however, fell well short of the average analyst estimate for slightly more than $697 million. The situation was better on the bottom line -- non-GAAP (adjusted) net income saw a nearly 60% rise to $55.5 million for the period, or $0.60 per share. That broadly met prognosticator forecasts.
Stericycle breaks down its revenue into two categories, regulated healthcare waste and compliance -- its "classic" and core activities -- and secure information destruction services.
Of the two, it's the latter that's surging ahead. In the fourth quarter, its revenue rose by almost 20% to $221 million. By contrast, the take for regulated waste and compliance sagged by 6%.
Now what
Stericycle quoted its CEO Cindy Miller as saying that the quarter's performance "was in line with our expectations." However, since the company considers 2022 to have been a "challenging operating year," those expectations were muted.
In the earnings release, Stericycle didn't provide its view as to how 2023 might shape up. Consistent with this it did not provide any guidance, which might have been a factor in the negative investor reaction to the earnings news.
