Seven Takeaways from Stericycle’s Latest Financial Results

Net income declined 49.2 percent to $42.2 million, or 47 cents per diluted share, compared with $83 million, or 96 cents per diluted share, in the 2014 period.

Revenue climbed 7.6 percent to $718.6 million from $667.9 million a year earlier, the company said in a news release. Acquisitions added about $33.3 million in revenues to the current period’s growth.

For the nine-month period, net profits for Stericycle fell 27.1 percent to $178.9 million, or $2.04 per diluted share, compared with $245.5 million, or $2.83 per diluted share, in the year-ago period.

For the same year-to-date period, revenue rose 11.7 percent to $2.1 billion from $1.88 billion in the 2014 period.

Zacks Equity Research characterized earnings per share results as “woefully short” of its consensus estimate by 10 cents. It said the significant decline occurred despite a healthy top-line improvement and was the result primarily of high operating, acquisition and integration expenses.

Earlier in October Stericycle settled a long-standing lawsuit regarding charges that it had been systematically overcharging government entities for its services. The settlement totaled $26.8 million.

In July Stericycle made a huge acquisition, buying information destruction firm Shred-it International for $2.3 billion.