Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Santarus Inc. (NASDAQ: SNTS), a specialty biopharmaceutical company, jumped as much as 13% after handily trouncing Wall Street's estimates in the second-quarter and boosting its full-year outlook.
So what: For the quarter, Santarus reported a huge gain in revenue of 89% to $89.4 million and a blistering adjusted profit of $0.31 per share compared to just $0.10 in EPS in the year-ago period. Furthermore, this doesn't include a nearly $55 million one-time tax benefit that Santarus recognized during the quarter. Newly approved Uceris -- designed to treat mild to moderate ulcerative colitis -- recognized $16 million in revenue, more than double what it reported in the sequential quarter, while upper gastrointestinal disorder drug Zegerid saw sales jump 110% to $21.6 million. For the quarter, Wall Street had been expecting just $0.16 in EPS on $82.9 million in revenue. Looking ahead, Santarus also boosted its full-year guidance to a range of $355 million to $360 million in revenue and EPS of $1.21-$1.26 from its prior outlook that called for $330 million to $340 million in sales and $1.03-$1.15 in EPS.
Now what: I keep thinking the run in Santarus is over, and it just keeps plugging forward. Thus far, the launch of Uceris has gone as planned, but the big surprise has been just how quickly sales of Zegerid have rebounded and how strong sales have been for its largest revenue-generating product, Glumetza. However, I still have a hard time wrapping my hands around Santarus at 20 times forward earnings with the stock having already quintupled in a year's time span. I can't help but think much of its future growth is already well-baked into its share price here.
