After losing more than $750 million over the past year, could this be the quarter that Canadian Biotech company MDS Inc. (NYSE:MDZ) finally turns things around? MDS will report their earnings after the bell today, and analysts are expecting a loss of $0.01 per share (or roughly $670 million).
The company’s been in a reinvention phase after announcing the sale of its Analytical Technologies and Pharma Services businesses in September of 2009. Analysts keep thinking MDS will turn the corner after absorbing costs associated with the sale, but the company still seems mired in lingering costs. Last quarter, analysts expected a loss of $0.06 per share. Instead, MDS reported a loss of $0.51 per share.
“While the Company’s focus is now solely on the MDS Nordion business, as well as Corporate and Other functions, transactions associated with the strategic repositioning continue to have a significant impact on continuing operations,” MDS said in a press release at the time.
Hopefully, last quarter’s big write-off will prove enough to help MDS return to profitability – a state the company hasn’t seen since June 2009.
MDS has gotten some good news in recent months, at least. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., which owns and operates the National Research Universal reactor, began shipping isotopes to MDS Nordion in Ottawa last month. MDS processes the isotopes before sending them on to hospitals across the country.
That will re-start a revenue stream for MDS that was shut off for 15 months for cleaning. That’s big news as MDS Nordion leads Canada’s molecular imaging and radiotherapeutics market. Of course, the change won’t be reflected in today’s earnings report, but it’s a big step in the right direction. Re-inventing a company takes time and money, after all. And sometimes it takes a lot longer and costs a lot more than investors would like – particularly when nuclear reactors are involvedd.
